Take You With Me
by Ignoramus
Summary: The promised sequel to Leave You Behind, which should be read first. Plot: The Doctor and Rose are now together, but as they fight their toughest battle yet, will they both survive? Please review. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

Here, folks, is a short beginning to the sequel to Leave You Behind, called Take You With Me. Like I said in the prologue, if you haven't read that then you probably should otherwise you won't understand a word of this. Thank you and enjoy!

TAKE YOU WITH ME

CHAPTER 1

Rose awoke on a large couch in Jackie's living room, entangled with Theta, who was curled around her, holding her tight. They were both covered with his brown trenchcoat, and had both, as always, been sharing the same dream - this time of them being on the Tardis floor doing considerably more than kissing... Rose had awoken when sunlight entered the room, and as that particular dream involved each other, the Doctor would soon notice her absence from the dream and pursue another one, or more likely wake up.

The memories began flooding back then - how, in one day, she had been dumped by the Doctor, stood up to an alien invasion, saved the Doctor's life in the Tardis, thrown away her humanity, declared her love for the last Time-Lord in the universe, unleashed a burning London Eye on the alien horde and subsequently joined the Doctor in saving the world from said aliens by flooding the whole of Central London. Not bad for a 19-year old shop girl...

They had stood there for some time on the roof-top before going back inside the Tardis. Rose dimly remembered the Doctor wrapping her in his trenchcoat, and asking to go to Jackie's place to see if she was OK. When she entered the flat only to find Jackie and Harold weren't there, they both collapsed exhausted on the couch and knew no more.

Careful not to wake him, she examined the sleeping Doctor curiously. One hand was wrapped around her waist, and the other... was moving as she watched up to his mouth. Theta sucked his thumb! She stared at him. It was strange maybe, but undeniably cute coming from a 900-year old Time Lord. She looked down at his feet, which dangled lazily off the armrest, and grinned. Pink stripy socks! Brushing stray hair out of his eyes, she listened to the strong double heartbeat against his chest - his shirt was still a little damp - and watched as he frowned in his sleep and woke up suddenley with a yell, sitting bolt upright and throwing Rose off the couch and onto the floor, where she began laughing hysterically. Upon the Doctor's questioning stare, she decided to tell him - in Gallifreyan, which they now spoke only to each other when alone, finding the language more expressive than English.

"...Your thumb's still stuck in your mouth!"

The Doctor yelped, seeing this was true, and jerked his thumb out immediately. Judging by it's colour, his face could easily have replaced the giant STOP sign on the M5, Rose thought. He looked at her crossly.

"Don't do that to me again!"

"Don't do what?"

"When you woke up, you disappeared, and my subconscious decided you'd been taken away by giant alien caterpillars with no heads... Imagine being chased around in the dead of night, half naked, about to be eaten by a CATERPILLAR..."

He trailed off, then remembered something and grinned mischeviously at her. "But that's one nice imagination you got there Rose! The dream quality was outta this world!"

Rose blushed. "Well, you had half the ideas..."

"No, seriously, your virtual hands are amazing-" As Rose turned positively scarlet and told him telepathically to shut up, he grinned and dragged her back onto the couch, kissing her as he felt her fingers set his skin on fire. So, it wasn't just her VIRTUAL hands that were magic... He groaned happily as Rose messed up his hair between her fingers and slowly undid his shirt collar. Well, God knows how many buttons she would have actually undone if Jackie hadn't picked that moment to stroll into the room carrying a mug of tea.

The mug promptly crashed to the floor.

Exactly three seconds later, the entire road was awakened by a deafening scream.

"GET YOUR ALIEN HANDS OFF MY DAUGHTER!" Absoloute silence. Behind her, Rose heard the glass in the kitchen window shatter.

Theta switched to English, and his first thought telepathically transmitted, was "Dammit... My God, she looks angry..." He leaped off Rose and turned to face Jackie, then cowered in fear as she launched into a tirade.

"YOU SLEPT WITH MY ROSE, YOU... FREAK. IN MY HOUSE! YOU - YOU ARE NOT GONNA LIVE TO SAY YOU'RE SORRY!"

"Now you see Jackie, the word "slept" there is ambiguious, that is that yes, I have slept with Rose in the literal sense of the term, but in the colloquially implied sense, that is, erm... no, not THAT way, if you see what I-"

As Jackie ran across the room, arm raised, with freshly manicured nails ready to slap the Doctor senseless, the Doctor's fingertips began to glow blue-purple. Rose could sense he was trying to control it but as Jackie raised her hand it all got too much for him and an explosion of blue-purple fear sparks shot out of his fingertips. At that point, the Doctor swayed where he stood, having used all his body's energy keeping the sparks under control, and just had time to whisper to Rose, "Catch me" down their link with his last remaining energy reserves before his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed in her arms.

Review! Review! Review! Ah, here it is gets out chainsaw REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 folks! As blackhairdye pointed out, much to my amusement, writers usually offer cookies, not chainsaws! Well, I'm a very violent (but talented) person and therefore have an attatchment to chainsaws. Seriously though, the reviewing response has been amazing (you guys LIKE fluff don't you? I'm on a steep learning curve today...)so everyone who reviewed gets one of those big American cookies with chocolate chips in... but that won't stop me getting my chainsaw out at the end!

One note: I discovered the little Italics button on my computer today when I was half-way through this, so up until then the telepathy goes unmarked.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 2

Rose grabbed Theta and laid him down on the couch, whispering soothing words down the link until he stopped shaking and lay motionless on the couch. She stroked his hair gently, and then turned to face Jackie, who was standing with her hands on her hips, counting up to ten and taking deep breaths.

"Right... Rose, you are gonna tell me EXACTLY what is going on here..."

The Doctor, beginning to regain consciousness, lifted his head off the sofa and croaked, "Jackie - "

Jackie whirled around as fast as lightening and bellowed. "YOU! I'M GONNA KILL-"

Theta squeaked and flopped back on the couch as the blue-purple sparks engulfed him again with a crackling sound. Rose rolled her eyes. Exactly how old was this guy? 903 years, 7 months and 10 days, her ever-active mind informed her. Rose told herself very firmly to shut up. Her mother had no right to terrorize the love of her life like that... even if he was a right wimp. Absoloutely furious with Jackie, Rose looked at her fingertips and groaned as white sparks shot forth.

Jackie paled and stammered, "Wh-what are those things? Are they dangerous? What's that man done to you? Has he poisoned you? With his alien blood? Oh my god - is he diseased? Does he have fleas? I always said-"

"MUM... SHUT UP!"

"...of COURSE he doesn't have fleas!"

Jackie fell silent and Rose turned back to Theta. She needed him up - now. He was gonna have to help her explain the events of yesterday to Jackie, and convince her that her daughter was no longer human. Struck with an idea, she reached into his head, and found him on his knees at the back of his mind, shaking so bad he could hardly hear her. She yelled through the mental fog,

"Listen, I love you, but if you don't wake up RIGHT NOW I'll stand back and let Jackie murder you..." Hearing her, he turned blue-purple again, but fought it and muttered,

"Help me up..." Rose took his hand and as they both exited his mind, Jackie appeared to come to a decision, having seen her daughter go into a telepathic trance for several minutes.

"Something tells me this is gonna take a while. Sit down... I'll put the kettle on."

The Doctor put his hand up gingerely, like the new boy sent to the head's office. "Jackie..."

"What?"

"Can I... can I have a banana milkshake?"

At this, Rose burst out laughing, while Jackie shook her head and muttered, "I'll see what I can do..." before going to the kitchen and opening cupboards.

Harold chose that moment to walk down the hallway yawning stretching very loudly.

"Jackie! How's my wonderful wife-to-be?"

He strode into the living room looking a complete mess. His hair was dishevelled and he was wearing a dressing gown. Stopping dead when he saw the Doctor and Rose, he said, "Ah", and hurriedly wrapped the dressing gown tightly round himself. Apparantly, he wasn't wearing pyjamas. Jackie took one look, smiled at him and said to the pair on the sofa, "Not one word. I'll explain later..."

Harold looked at the floor and muttered, "Guess I'll go and get dressed then..." before dashing back to the bedroom.

Jackie re-appeared with three cups of tea, a pot, milk and sugar, and a banana milkshake. Theta eyed it with interest.

"It's only Nesquik I'm afraid... and the use-by-date was 1991..."

"No, it's fine!" beamed the Doctor. He picked up the bowl of sugar, took out the spoon and emptied the entire thing into the milkshake, stirring vigorously. Jackie lifted her hands in despair and went back to get a refill as Rose grinned.

He asked down the link, "Did... I do something wrong?"

Rose smirked. "Only pissed Mum off without even realising it!"

Theta gulped. "Oh... Rose, you gotta help me, I don't know anything about human behaviour..."

"Calm down! Drink that thing, I know what sugar does to you..."

He took a large gulp and smiled blissfully. "Synthetic bananas and sugar! Does wonders to your mind!"

"I'm sure it does... can I try it?" Rose asked as she suddenley felt a strange attraction to the drink. Theta grinned.

"Ah, there's the joining at work! Yes, suddenely I have a strong liking for... chips!" he pronounced, eyes twinkling.

Rose sipped the drink cautiously and was amazed at how much she liked it. That thing set her adrenalin on fire! MAJOR sugar rush!

"Mum, have you got any more Nesquik?"

Theta looked at Rose. "I never told you what happened on that planet, did I? Have a look..."

Rose put her fingertips on Theta's temples and instantly accessed his mind. The memory of his time on Genesis swam to the front of his brain and she watched Theta reject their offer, how it was too late, how he missed her, facing certain death, when the Tardis appeared and told him about the prophesy before whisking him back to Earth. She heard Theta's voice-over. "No-one knew I'd been injected with that drug except the Leader, until I collapsed." Watching him collapse on the Tardis mainframe, the memory ceased and Rose exited his mind.

"And that's where you come in..."

"The Tardis told me everything... thank you." The yellow sparks began darting around both their fingertips as they smiled blissfully at each other. As their feelings intensified, the yellow mist began to spread and they both shook themselves out of their trance.

While Jackie was in the kitchen, Harold came in, now thankfully dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He slumped in an armchair and kept quiet, apparantly still embarassed by the events of the morning, when he thought he and Jackie were the only ones in the flat. The Doctor eventually broke the silence.

"Er... congratulations!"

Harold looked at him. "Thanks - I only proposed last night, ya know. I was driving Jackie home on that motorbike - it's parked outside in the carpark, actually - when 'er head hit a tree, and I felt so sorry for her, I kinda said the first thing that popped inter me head... she didn't seem to mind though!"

They heard Jackie singing happily in the kitchen.

"Oh yeah?" Theta gazed at Rose suddenely, and idea in his head, and she laughed down the link,

"I can hear your thoughts remember?"

Theta groaned and put his head in his hands. Rose pulled him up again and kissed him.

"Aww, don't be embarassed, it was a lovely idea, but ask me later, OK?"

"OK!" he agreed with a delighted expression on his face.

Jackie walked in carrying another milkshake and sugar bowl. Rose picked up the bowl, removed the spoon, chucked the contents in and stirred with a mischevious smile on her face. Jackie looked like she was about to explode, and looking at her, Theta was starting to glow with fear again. Rose nudged him.

"You're glowing again, now stop it, she's only my mother!"

Jackie sat down next to Harold and glared at the Doctor across the table, who looked at his shoes. Rose decided she should start the proceedings.

"Right, now Mum there's no easy way to say this OK, but if you listen to me for a whole - she thought about it - 3 minutes and 56 seconds, WITHOUT interrupting, we should be able to get through everything."

Jackie nodded and reached for Harold's hand.

"You know the Doctor is an alien? A Time-Lord - from Gallifrey - looks a bit like Mars doesn't it? All the red ground..." She glanced at Theta who nodded, startled.

"Right, well this morning he left me on Earth - don't ask why, it's complicated - and then he went to visit Genesis..."

She briefly explained what happened on the planet.

"So after the Tardis told the Doctor about this prophesy, she took him back to Earth but the Spectres injected him with this drug he didn't know about, that kills you after 10 minutes if you leave the planet's atmosphere. So when he landed on Earth he'd already collapsed. I lost Harold, and was about to be barbecued by one of those alien bastards when the Tardis appeared - with impeccable timing - so I hopped aboard..."

She then narrated the events that took place inside the Tardis, watching her mother's expression change from confused to dread to all-out-horror.

"...so as you've probably guessed, Mum - I'm not human anymore."

As she heard this Jackie began hyper-ventilating and yelling incoherently, becoming more hysterical by the minute. As she began shaking, Harold began to yell for someone to call an ambulance. While everyone panicked, Theta picked her up effortlessly and dumped her on the sofa, where she collapsed. Forcing her mouth open, he grabbed his milkshake and poured in a large quantity, then slammed her mouth shut again, poured a little milkshake on her face for good measure, then stepped back a few paces and calmly waited for a result.

As Rose and Harold asked him together, "What did you do?", he explained with a shrug, "I treated her my way. They don't call me a Doctor for nothing, you know. It'll work, trust me."

A few seconds later, Jackie opened her eyes and sat up.

"Why is there milkshake on my face?"

Rose laughed and kissed Theta. Sensing her gratitude, he turned red. "It was nothing. Really."

Rose turned back to Jackie. "Right, now that I've told I'm not human, do you want me to explain what I am?"

Upon Jackie's assent, Rose and Theta sat down on the sofa.

"The thing is... I really don't know. And having the same brain as genius over here, - she gestured at Theta, who grinned - that's saying something. My best guess would be a mix of Time Lord, human and... Vortex? And whatever I am, the Doctor's exactly the same."

"Oh Rose, hold on - " The Doctor grabbed his coat from behind the sofa and produced a rectangular scanner. Running it over Rose, the scanner beeped cheerfully.

"Should identify her species any second now..." As he said this the scanner turned green, made a high-pitched whiring noise and suddenely exploded in the Doctor's hand.

"Ah... apparantly the scanner doesn't know. So... I am forced to conclude that - "

" - we are a new and unidentified species." Rose finished for him. He turned to her and told her down the link,

"Stop finishing my sentences! Just 'cos you're thinking exactly the same thing!"

"Actually, my mind worked it out before yours did!"

"Did not!" He pulled a face at her.

"Did so!" She pulled one back.

Jackie interrupted. "Listen, I'm sorry to break up this NUTTER'S CONVENTION, but since when did people make faces at each other for no reason? And since when did white sparks start flying out of your fingers?"

Rose looked at her hand briefly, blew on it to cool it down, and started off, "Right, well being a new species altogether, there's loads of things we can do... we're actually more joined than-"

"-any other beings in the universe." Rose glared at Theta, who smirked. White sparks shot from her fingertips, and without realising it, she changed to Gallifreyan, calling Theta several violent expletives.

Theta chuckled at the expression on her face when she realised she was no longer speaking English.

"Interesting... apparantly, when the anger senses overload, there's a danger of switching temporarily to Gallifeyan OR English, I think. You probably tend to switch to the one you prefer though." He grinned. "Glad to see you like Gallifreyan so much!"

He proceeded to explain to Jackie and Harold, who to his credit had formed a shaky belief in their story, and was now listening intently, the 'quirks' they both had and the many more that would probably appear. This took a long time, with Rose constantly finishing his sentences, and the telepathic conversations that followed. He realised they were now beginning to look into each other's minds automatically, without thinking about it. This joining thing was stronger than he thought.

When he finally finished, Jackie was silent for a moment, digesting all the information, then she folded her arms and spoke.

"Okay. So now there's no chance of Rose leaving you? My daughter's stuck with you forever!"

"Jackie, at this point in time she couldn't leave even if she wanted to. She wouldn't be able to cope with a human life, not any more. Besides, she NEEDS me - and I need her. There's this physical pull on both of us that draws us in - more than any two people in the universe, we need each other. We're the most powerful beings in existance but we have a weakness - we just can't be apart. We can save the universe together but we can't even live alone. That's more than love, Jackie..."

The Doctor had mumbled all this with his hands in his pockets, looking at the floor, but his words contained so much undisguised emotion that everyone in the room was stunned. The words reverberated in Rose's head,

"_We can save the world together but we can't even live alone._"

She heard his voice down the link, "_Rose..._"

"_Theta..._" Rose ran straight into his arms, looked into his eyes and saw his overpowering fear that Jackie would take her away. Every word he had said was true - she knew that now. They looked at each other, and said, _"I know."_ at exactly the same time. Rose stroked Theta's hair. He was clearly incredibly upset - his mind was in a fog and she couldn't understand what he was thinking.

_"I'm sorry - I was afraid I'd be alone again. I love you. I can't help it-"_

_"Woah! Don't you dare apologize... I love you too. And Mum's not that cruel - she's not gonna take me away, don't worry now, shh..."_

She held him quietly for several minutes while he cried and eventually managed to think clearly again. Pulling her up he kissed her gently.

"_Thank you."_

Jackie, truly touched by the Doctor's little speech, made her decision. She held her arms wide.

"Come 'ere you!"

The Doctor, truly terrified, was nudged by Rose, who giggled.

_"Go on, she won't bite!"_

The Doctor stepped gingerely into Jackie's embrace, and found it surprisingly tolerable. It reminded him, for the first time in oh, 850 years, of his own mother, and he carefully hugged her back before stepping away. His mood changed like lightening as he suddenely remembered the alien invasion.

"Right, first things first." He switched the telly on and slumped on the sofa with the remote. Rose landed next to him as he pulled out his glasses and stared at the screen. The images were of London under several feet of water, an entie city on the rooftops, the explosion and fireworks that followed, and, to their intense embarassment, of both of them in each other's arms on the rooftop.

Theta groaned. "I'll never live this down. Every single villian I ever meet's gonna hear about this - I have a reputation to uphold..."

The press were having a field day. Media streamed into Central London as the world's attention was focused on the city, which was now determined to prove to the world that aliens exist. Footage was shown of people hammering on TV studio doors, eager to tell their stories. The Internet was being flooded with blogs on the

The image went back to Theta and Rose on the roof with the Tardis as the Prime Minister made his speech.

"Hey look, it's Tony Blair! That guy who replaced Harriet Jones, remember?"

"On behalf of this country and the world, I would like to thank these two people, wherever they are, for saving us all. I can't express my gratitude enough-"

At this point, Theta and Rose both collapsed on the sofa, covered in white and purple-blue sparks and shaking violently.

Inside their heads, they could see the Spectral leader, still very much alive on the Genesis planet. A being of light with a dark band around his head, exactly as the Doctor remembered him. He painfully broke down their mental defences and entered their minds, sneering at the Doctor.

_"WHAT A PITIFUL LITTLE THING YOU ARE DOCTOR! So you escaped my planet... destoyed my army... was that all? You killed a load of clones and thought you had defeated me?"_

He laughed mockingly. _"Well, I'm still here. Still with my big secret. And I can assure you, Doctor, that if you do not come back I will use my... secret... to unleash all conceivable terrors upon Earth - I still have the power to destroy it. What choice do you have? Stay where you are, everyone dies. You've no option, Doctor. I await your return..."_

As he left their minds, Theta and Rose stopped shaking and woke up. Sitting on the couch, they stared at each other, lost for words and very, very afraid.

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Right! - gets chainsaw and sets it on fire - now review and you will get chocolate digestives!


	3. Chapter 3

Hello! This chapter's been a while getting here due to internet failure, and I have been managing with the aid of a benevolent friend's laptop. That's why I haven't answered anyone's reviews, but be assured I have read them. I apologize in advance for the fluff...

I dedicate this chapter to pinkTARDIS, who told me I could do romance. I hope this chapter proves her right...

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They stared at each other for some time on the sofa before the Doctor moved. Quick as lightening, he leaped to his feet, followed by Rose, grabbed his coat and shot out of the front door. He paused as Rose said goodbye to yell to a perplexed Jackie and Harold,

"You two - stay inside today. Whatever you do, DON'T open the door. Got it? Not even for the postman. Oh and Harold - good luck. Try not to get slapped too much... Bye!"

Before Jackie could ask him what the hell that was supopsed to mean, he had let Rose out and disappeared, slamming the door behind him. They both ran down to the carpark to get the Tardis as the Doctor summarised the situation to Rose.

_"I've gotta go back - he was right, I don't have a choice. He might be bluffing about destroying Earth - he might be weak or he might be ready to kill me... but that's a risk I'll have to take. He has the advantage - hell, I'd do anything for you stupid apes and he knows it. And he needs me back. So in that sense I'm walking straight into a trap..."_

They found the Tardis, went in and as the Doctor hung up his coat on the wall, Rose walked over to the Tardis and began piloting it like it was the most natural thing in the world. She didn't even notice until she caught the amused expression on Theta's face and looked down at her hands in astonishment.

_"Very well done!" _he beamed at her. _"See if you can set it for me. Erm... present day, fifth nebula off the edge of the Milky Way, not too far from Andromeda actually, Genesis planet... should show up on the screen..."_

_"Done."_

_"Excellent! I'll let you fly it more in future - lift-off was fantastic, looks like the old girl likes you!"_

Rose paused a second and looked at him. "_You know, there is something you've overlooked... when we saw the transmission, did you notice, he only looked at you. He only spoke to you. You know what - I don't think he knew I could hear that. Which means - he doesn't know we share the same mind. He doesn't know about the joining! Sure he knows I exist - that photo on the TV screens sorts that out, and he knows what happened on the Game Station - but I only learned to use Bad Wolf combined with Time Lord genes AFTER the joining. He doesn't know... what we can do. You know what this means? WE'RE the advantage!"_

Theta stared at her before picking her up and swinging her around.

"_Rose Tyler - your logic is amazing!"_

_"Get used to it..."_ came the response prompting the Doctor to tickle her senseless, Rose putting up a fight and tickling the Doctor in the process. When they were both lying on the floor helpless with laughter, the Tardis screen bleeped. Apparantly, they had arrived at their destination. Rose stood up and moved towards the door, but the Doctor grabbed her hand.

"_No, wait..." _He looked at her with a strange expression on his face before dashing inside the Tardis.

Rose waited with increasing curiosity as Theta disappeared. Trying to read his mind she found that he had ingeniously blocked it from her. Whatever he had to say must be incredibly important, she thought.

Theta soon re-appeared, looking more nervous than she had ever seen him. He ran his fingers through his hair, which was was extremely ruffled and standing up on his head endearingly. And he was hiding something behind his back! She fought the urge to grab him by his collar and threaten to unleash all imaginable terrors upon him until he told her what the hell was going on - but refrained from doing so. She looked into his eyes and found them dark with some passionate emotion. He had beautiful eyes, she thought absent-mindedly.

"_Thank you!" _Rose blushed as she realised she hadn't shielded her thoughts.

She opened her mouth to respond but Theta softly laid two fingers on her lips and looked her meaningfully.

"_Listen Rose, there's no easy way to say this but - oh Rasillion, why can't I say it?" _He never swore unless under extreme pressure.

_"Theta - my curiosity can't take it anymore. Now spit it out or I'll be reduced to violence..."_

_"From the minute we get outside that door I'm in danger, Rose. I - I could be killed at any time. That's why... I'm doing this now. Hell I love you Rose and you love me, so what I'm trying to say is..." _he mumbled something inaudible and flushed bright red. Rose didn't know whether to laugh or scream with frustration.

_"THETA!" _she exploded.

Blue-purple fear sparks shot out of his fingertips as he suddenely left the telepathy.

"Will you marry me?"

"What?" This was NOT what she was expecting. She could feel herself going into shock.

"I was afraid of this..." He hung his head and looked so incredibly endearingly hoplessley... _lost_ that to Rose, as a telepathic, the feeling screamed out at her from the Doctor's every pore. Forgetting all her own thoughts she grabbed his chin and lifted his head.

She took his hand and said softly, "Then don't be afraid..."

Theta's eyes darkened as he looked into hers and they were both overcome by that wonderful feeling of falling in love all over again. _Don't be afraid. _They just looked at each other for one glorious moment that could have lasted a second or an eternity - it didn't matter. _Don't be afraid. _He could have loved her just for saying that to him. _Don't be afraid. _He cared about her enough to open his heart out without knowing what she would say or even if he'd live to marry her...

They moved as one, kissing each other with a desperate passion like they'd never felt before. All their fear, all their love, all the power of the universe was emptied into that one kiss as the sparks erupted into golden fireworks and they were thrown into a mind-blowing portal of pure pleasure. Luckily, they managed to keep control or they would both have blacked out. As they pulled away, both breathing hard, they saw the golden mist that was gently descending and smiled. The Doctor took out the items he was hiding - two slender gold cloths and a breathtakingly beautiful silver tiara. Rose's jaw dropped as she gazed at it.

"I - wow. It's... beautiful." Ah, the limitations of language!

"I... erm... wanted you to have this. It was my mother's - she gave it to me as a child, I've kept it ever since. It's a human thing - been in the family line for generations. Take it - it's yours." As Rose put it on he stared, then grinned. "Beautiful. You know, it suits you..."

He waved the gold cloths around. "I knew I had these somewhere. These, Rose Tyler, are Gallifreyan... erm... commitment tokens, I suppose. What Gallifreyans use as a prequisite to marriage. Like your engagement rings on Earth, only I don't have any of those on board..." he flushed sheepishly.

"Anyway, you should find you know how to use them. Dead easy - you just put the cloth over your... beloved's head and suddenely you both get telepathy. But usually it's ONLY telepathy. WE - thanks to you - already have... well, everything really..." He beamed at Rose, who smiled up at him, radiating emotion. Both of them were now glowing a bright yellow.

"...so we won't notice a difference. Now, this kind of thing is usually done in a huge hall or something, and obviously we can't do that here. HOWEVER, as we uniquely share the same mind, if we both imagine what we wanna see, I'm sure the Tardis would be happy to create a virtual image for us."

The Tardis hummed her assent and Theta grinned his thanks. As he and Rose both closed their eyes in concentration, the Tardis interior was transformed and a virtual world suddenely appeared in it's place. Rose opened her eyes first and stared.

She was standing underneath a large tree, wearing a set of pure white robes and barefoot. A small snow-covered glade lay in front of her, but suprisingly she wasn't cold in the least. Not far away was the shore, with a crystal-blue sea breaking on the rocks below.and as she stared, Theta opened his eyes and looked around with interest. He whistled.

"_Impressive! The old girl's still got it - this is amazing! Great imagination by the way, love the snow!" _He smiled at her and laid a hand on her shoulder.

_"You know these things have physical effects too, right? The emotions are so strong this scene'll probably vanish. Put mine on on three... should be fun..."_

Theta counted, and as they laid the cloths around each other's necks, there was an explosion of golden dust and the entire universe imploded. Or so it seemed. The force produced was so strong that the Tardis rocked where it stood for a full minute as the power in the Vortex ripped through the vent, the gap in space-time that the gold cloths had created. Magnified emotion stunned them both as intensified love rocketed through them, leaving them physically unable to move. Rose closed the gap with difficulty, feeling the visual paradise dissolve around them as they both hit the Tardis floor.

_"Woah! That was close..." _he muttered, picking himself up and stretching a hand out to Rose.

His voice suddenely changed and became deadly serious. _"I swear to you, Rose Tyler, if I survive this, I will marry you."_

_"I know you will." _Implicit trust again. May the Gods bless this girl!

Theta kissed her and then ran to the control panel, Rose on his heels. That was just how it was - the sudden mood swings she'd gotten so used to that she now had them herself. The change from passionate to thoughtful in the blink of an eye.

_"Right, now when we leave the Tardis, I'm not sure if we should go together or split up - I'm not sure if the Leader knows you're here or not..."_

Rose was adamant. "_We're going together - I'm not leaving you now - if we get split, so be it."_

_"You shouldn't be here at all, you know." _He told her gently. _"You don't need to do this..."_

_"Theta! WILL you shut up! Of course I need to do this! We are the same! I'm coming and that's final!"_

He grinned affectionately, nodded and reached for a square scanner.

_"I haven't used this before, and now's as good a time as any. This should change your basic facial features, hair, and maybe your height. You know, basic proofs of identification. It's temporarily alters your DNA, can't be discovered by anyone, but it's on a timer. We have 48 hours, then we're back to normal. Well, almost normal. There may be... one or two side effects..."_

He ran it carefully over first his face and then his body, then turned around and repeated the process. As the information was sent into a processor, he randomly altered the data and ran the scanner over himself again. There was a blinding flash of light and an explosion. When the dust cleared, a new man stood in front of her - slightly shorter with a stockier build. He had paler skin, the same dark eyes - but his hair...

_"Theta... you're ginger!"_

_"Really?" _He gasped as he spoke with a lilting Scottish accent.

Rose stared at him before cracking up laughing, finding the whole transformation absoloutely hilarious. The Doctor ran into one of the Tardis rooms and stood in front of a large mirror. As Rose appeared next to him, he laughed, delighted.

_"Fantastic! Ginger with a hint of brown... I've always wanted to be ginger!"_

Rose grinned. _"You know, I quite like it. Very rustic..."_

_"That had better be a good thing..." _he muttered, ruffling his new hair irritably, which was substantially longer than before, and flopped down lazily into his eyes. It was quite possibly the cutest hair Rose had ever seen - even if it needed cutting. She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck.

_"Yeah, it's a good thing..."_

They went back into the control room hand-in-hand and the Doctor motioned to Rose. _"Come on then, in front of the scanner please..."_

Muttering something darkly under her breath, Rose stood in front of the scanner with trepidation as the Doctor performed the same actions on her. When he'd finished, he backed away as the explosion occured and stared.

Rose's hair had just gotten longer - it now reached halfway down her back in waves and was a reddish-brown colour, streaked with chestnut. Her eyes had turned an almost emerald green. She was slightly taller than before and was now almost the same height as Theta, whose mouth had just dropped open in shock.

_"You... wow!" _He gulped. _"You look... amazing!" _His voice suddenely jumped an octave and he turned beetroot as Rose smirked.

She ran to the mirror and stared at her reflection.

_"Love the hair, but the green eyes?"_

_"My mother had green eyes..." _said Theta coming up behind her. _"I think they're cute!"_

He laughed at the look on her face and kissed the top of her head.

_"Right, let's go then! The Tardis landed in the middle of the Genesis compound. Our story is that..." _

_"...we're stowaways on board the Tardis - we were exploring and found a way in, the Doctor and Rose didn't see us, we've gotten out and are wondering where the hell we are." _Rose supplied.

_"Argh! You're doing it again! Stop with the mind-reading!"_

_"Oh, like you don't read mine all the time!"_

_"I do NOT read your mind! Well, not ALL the time..." _Theta shrugged on his coat.

As they made from the door Rose stopped him.

_"It's probably surrounded - we're gonna get captured!"_

_"That's exactly what I intend to do!"_

_"What?"_

_"Do you trust me?"_

_"I-"_

_"Do you trust me?" _Deadly serious.

_"Yes..."_

With that, the Doctor flung open the Tardis doors, surrounded by armed Spectres who were pointing huge guns at them from all sides. They heard the commander give the order to fire as the Doctor opened his mouth to speak...

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Well, they had to get engaged sometime, right? Whether they live to get married is another story... heh. Review and you will get doughnuts (thanks blackhairdye), decide not to review and my chainsaw will dice you into small, cube-like chunks while still alive, which I will then feed to the rabid bears rabid-x-llamas threatened to set on me. Ahem. Please review.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter... what are we on now... 4! I think... Anyway, allow me to extend my most sincere thanks and deepest gratitude to the following (in no particular order): daffodilTARDIS, timerelativedimensionsinspace, ieatcannibals, bloody-ink, rie482, saiyamar, blondesavmorefun, blackhairdye, Francesanne, Krokneze, one of the riddle's, Xxdoctorwho28fanxX and pinkTARDIS. Phew! You lovely wonderful people rock my world - you make me smile after a long day...

I don't like this chapter much, but it is necessary for plot development (plot development, you say? what plot development? I'm making this up as I go along...) I need to do this so that when... let's just say something happens to the bethrothed... a few chapters on there'll actually be a plot to go with it. Savvy? OK, enjoy!

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All the Spectres shot at them, and bursts of fire rocketed their way from all sides, Theta reacted faster than he ever had before, flinging Rose inside the door and throwing himself in after her, managing to close the Tardis door as bullets drummed onto it. Rose whimpered and clung to him, suddenely terrified. Realising she had panicked, he stroked her hair softly.

_"Shh... there now... it's alright Rose."_

_"Alright? They were gonna KILL ya!"_

_"Yeah, but they DIDN'T... Rose Tyler, we are going back out there and we're gonna give ourselves up. It's better that way - the amount of things you can learn from the jail is amazing! They don't know it's us, cos we changed, so if I do the talking we should be able to pull through."_

Rose grinned. "_Okay."_

_"That's my girl!" _With a brilliant smile, he took her hand and walked to the door, before taking his coat off and producing a purple hankerchief out of his shirt pocket.

_"Purple?"_

_"Yeah! You funny little apes with your white flags! Purple's the standard surrender around this nebula cluster...I just remembered - we both have to change our clothes, otherwise they'll recognise them."_

Rose and Theta dashed into the Tardis and changed in 10 seconds flat. When they reappeared, Theta pushed open the Tardis door a crack and shoved out the purple hankerchief out into plain view. It was immediately peppered with bullets, but to her credit, Rose didn't flinch. Several seconds later, they heard the commander give the order to cease fire, and Theta pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped out, gripping Rose's hand tightly.

The Spectres were all pointing their guns at them, however there weren't as many as they'd originally thought, only around a dozen, but armed to the teeth. Theta decided to speak.

"Excuse me - what the hell is going on here?" His hands were gesticulating furiously and his demeanour had completely changed - he now looked so exactly like a confused human that Rose wanted to laugh.

The commander, who was evidently in charge of

, decided to begin the interrogation.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. John Smith and this is my wife... Susan."

"What planet are you from?"

"Planet? Are you trying to waste my time? I'm a busy man, I don't have time for this..."

"What do you know of the Tardis?"

"The Tardis?"

"The blue box behind you..." Absoloute confusion on the commander's face. What the hell was going on here?

"This? My wife and I were taking our son Tommy to the park, he ran on ahead and seemed to get inside this blue... box... thing. Curious little chap that he is. So we went in after him to get him back, and this thing started moving! Threw us around all over the place it did, AND my wife gets motion sickness..." He appeared furious.

"You didn't see... anyone else inside this box?"

"No! Absoloutely no-one! It was just abandoned on the street corner... When I get my hands on the council I'm gonna sue!"

The commander stared at him hard as Theta met it with a stare of his own, eyes boring into his face. Something in that stare let the commander know that these were people he couldn't shoot on the spot.

"You're human - we're gonna hold you in the jails for a while..." Four armed Spectres approached them as the commander took out a stun gun and pointed it at them.

Theta's eyes darkened and he walked right up to the commander. He spoke so softly only the commander could hear.

"Sir - you will NOT stun us... if you want to live." The last part was uttered so quietly even Rose hardly heard him. The commander paled visibly and lowered the stun gun.

As the four armed guards surrounded them and they began to walk towards the offices, Rose yelled at him down the link.

_"Why did you say you were my wife? Called SUSAN? Our son Tommy..."_

_"Alright, so I got a little carried away..."_

Rose stopped right there. Delving into his mind she realised he DID want a little boy. Yes, the mental image was clear in his head. A little boy called Tommy! Theta secretly wanted kids! Aww... She squeezed his hand gently and watched the yellow sparks shoot in between their hands.

_"Theta - the sparks... they'll notice we're not human..."_

He frowned. "_If they do... I don't care. I'm not letting go of your hand..."_

Looking at him again, she noticed to her astonishment that they were both very slightly glowing a blue-purple. He was as scared as she was, then. She looked down at their hands and could practically feel the comfort surging up and down the physical link. It was amazing how comforting holding someone's hand really was. There was the physical warmth, the touch, and the presence of someone else... who CARED.

Reading her thoughts, Theta smiled as he realised just how much she UNDERSTOOD about time travel. Having a hand to hold was so important.

An unsaid conversation passed between them as they walked towards... well, they didn't know what awaited them on the other side. As they approached the office building the commander ordered them to stop.

"Stand to one side so you and your wife can be escorted to single cells."

Theta rose to his full height. "I'm afraid that's not possible... we go, we go together."

"That's not possible. All our cells are single-person only..."

"I TOLD YOU SIR, I WILL NOT BE SEPARATED FROM MY WIFE-"

The commander raised his stun gun, faster than Theta could duck, and hit him in the side. He went down like a lead balloon. As Rose yelled, absoloutely furious, the commander aimed the gun at her and when she ducked out of the way, gave her a very hard right hook on the jaw. As she collapsed, she heard him call to his officers to take them away.

Theta woke alone in a small cage-like thing. The cage was so tiny it was a tight squeeze getting him in at all. It had strong metal bars on the outside, placed so close together he couldn't fit his hand through, and as Theta gazed around, he noticed he was... on a shelf! He was on a shelf in a large room with countless huge cages with little dwarf-shaped little people crammed in them, all looking very servile, most of them on shelves and evidently in a lot of pain. He could see whips and irons on the walls. Obviously, the creatures were being tortured. So THIS was the prison? This was sick. He suddenely remembered Rose and hit his head hard on the cage roof as he did so.

_"Rose... Rose?" _No response, but he could still feel her telepathically, so she was alive. Probably unconscious - he remembered the dream he'd been having with Rose about her teaching him how to fix the dimensional modulator on the Tardis. Now he was gone from the dream he guessed she would wake up... he needed to know where she was so he could find her. He HAD to find her - hell, he missed her already. He had never been this attatched to anyone before - he loved Rose so much it scared him.

He got out the sonic screwdriver and set up a resonation pattern. Within minutes the pattern had shattered the bars and he clambered out of the cage and dropped to the ground, stretching his limbs, which were stiff. Judging by their condition, he had been unconscious for several hours. Glancing around at the creatures in the cages, he was overcome with sorrow as their sunken eyes gazed pleadingly at him.

"I WILL get you out of this - I promise!" he told them, and they all beamed at him with gratitude.

Rose still hadn't responded. Several minutes later, Theta was going out of his mind with worry... what had happened to her? A blue-purple fear haze

_"Theta?"_

_"Rose!" _He could feel she was in substantial pain. _"What have they done to you?"_

_"It's alright... hey you better hurry up so I can get the hell out of this cage!"_

_"Where are you?"_

Rose grinned. _"Listen..." _she hammered on the wall and the Doctor realised she was in the next room.

_"I heard you resonate the bars... which frequency did you use again?"_

_"Tell you later..." _he muttered, running to the concrete wall and running the scredriver over it, scanning it.

_"If you cover your eyes, setting 238B should do it..." _Rose informed him. Theta's mouth dropped open. Wow. He kept forgetting she was as intelligent as he was now...

_"Brilliant!"_

He aimed the screwdriver over the wall and turned his back as a blue beam shot onto the wall, breaking up every single molecular bond in the concrete and reducing it to a huge pile of incredibly fine powder. On the other side was Rose's cage. He ran to it and carefully resonated the bars again until they collapsed. Rose leapt into his arms as he kissed her passionately... before pulling away as he noticed her jaw was bleeding slightly. The flesh had been torn by what looked like knuckles and she was in for one hell of a bruise.

_"It's alright... that commander guy just whacked me one..."_

_"He hurt you!" _Theta's eyes flashed and he began to crackle with fury.

_"Hey! It's alright... THETA! You're burning up again! Now is NOT the time!"_

He stopped himself with an effort and then froze as plaster began to trickle from the ceiling.

_"What the hell?"_

Rose visibly paled. _"Theta - we're underground, can you feel the increase in pressure? So... the concrete wall you smashed was holding up the ceiling. Which means-"_

_"It's all gonna collapse... shit." _finished Theta.

_"How much time have we got?"_

_"Realistically? Under five minutes before it caves in..."_

_"We HAVE to get these people out of here!"_

_"Well how can we do that? Resonating all the bars will take hours!"_

Theta put his hands on her shoulders. _"There's only one way to do this... we're gonna have to use Bad Wolf. Now you've done this before, so I'll channel you the combined power and you control it, OK?"_

She nodded and he hugged her before putting his fingers on her temples and slowly but surely reaching out to the Vortex in his blood and chanelling it down his fingers into Rose. As she felt the sudden upsurge in power, Rose took hold of Bad Wolf and was instantly transported into a world of immense power. Swooping down, she touched the cages with golden fingertips and felt them melt and dissolve. Immersed in her world, she only just heard the Doctor telling her insistently with his mind to come back. She obeyed, although it was so hard - and why was she burning? With a final exhausting leap, she returned to herself and blacked out in Theta's arms.

As all the dwarves were set free, Theta ran to the door and blasted it open quickly with his sonic screwdriver. All the dwarves scrambled hurriedly out of the room and up a flight of stairs as the door-blasting caused a security breach and a deafening alarm sounded. With Rose in his arms Theta raced after them, and not a moment too soon - the second he threw himself out of the door, the entire ceiling collapsed, and giant concrete slabs rained down on the room. A few more seconds would have been certain death. Using Bad Wolf had saved them, but it had nearly killed Rose... what would happen if they had to use it again?

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I know, I know, I say this every time - but please please review!


	5. Chapter 5

Another short chapter I wrote today. I actually made a plot outline today so I know what happens now and I don't have to make it up as I go along, which is dangerous as it leads to inaccuracies... Enjoy!

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Theta ran with the dwarves up a flight of stairs, then another, and another. Obviously, they were deep underground. But they HAD to get to Ground Level before the Spectres found them. Something stirred in his head. Why weren't there any guards here? The alarm had gone off loud and clear... Something was going on. As he ran up the last flight of stairs into a long coridoor, he felt Rose awaken in his arms and smiled down at her.

_"Hello!"_

_"Hello... did it work?"_

_"Yeah! AND everyone managed to get out before it collapsed!" _He put her down.

_"The only thing is - "_

_" - there aren't enough guards around here." _she finished for him.

Theta sulked and glared at her. _"That was MY sentence..." _he trailed off as he noticed the dwarves. There were around 40 of them in that prison, male and female, and as they watched, they all trooped silently into single file, all 40 of them lined up in a row down the coridoor. They looked like little tin soldiers on display as they all gazed solemnly at Theta and Rose before bowing together, their long noses grazing the floor, before straightening up again.

As Theta shuffled, embarassed, Rose decided to adress the dwarves.

_"Theta - I'll do this - stand guard OK? Let me know if anyone turns up..." _Grumbling good-naturedly, Theta moved to the other end of the coridoor and poked his head round the corner before turning to watch Rose with interest.

Moving so she was facing the middle of the line, and everyone could see her, Rose began her address.

"Right... erm first things first, I'm Rose and this is the Doctor - "

From the other end of the coridoor the Doctor beamed and waved a hand. "Hello!" The little dwarves all craned their heads to look at him at exactly the same time, then jerked them back together, like pidgeons, to focus on Rose. The sight was hilarious...

"Now could one of you please tell me who you are?"

As she said this there was temporary silence, then suddenely all the dwarves raised their hands and... applauded her enthusiastically, without a hint of sarcasm. The clapping resounded down the hallway, and continued for several minutes until a confused Rose raised her hand, ceasing the clapping instantly.

As Theta cracked up laughing, Rose became completely exasperated.

"Right. Okay. So... do you talk?"

The dwarves answered as one, in a squeaky sing-song voice. "YEEEEEEEEEEES"

"Are you taking the mick?"

The dwarves looked at each other, confused. "NOOOOOOOOO"

Gales of laughter from the end of the coridoor. Rose shot Theta a stony glare and he fell silent.

She began speaking slowly and clearly. "I want ONE of you to do the talking. Now you pick someone, and when you're ready, could that person stand forward please... and NO clapping!" she added hastily as they started to raise their hands again.

The dwarves grouped into a large huddle, where they confabulated in a very fast, high-pitched dialogue, with much frantic head-shaking, nodding and jumping up and down. As Rose watched them in some amusement, they stringed out into single file again and the dwarf at the head of the line stepped forward.

Feeling that they might at last be getting somewhere, Rose moved to stand in front of the dwarf, and he bowed low again.

He squeaked, "We salute you, O Great Mistress-who-saved-us-from-death..."

"Erm... thank you..."

"I speak for the Ascenites, the dwarf people, in your language the "Little Purple Men" due to our purple heads..."

"Right..."

"Our home planet was destroyed by the Genesis 100 years ago... they took our race as the spoils of war and forced us into slavery..." He bowed his head and a single silent tear plopped on the floor. Rose crouched down to his level and lifted up his purple head.

"There now... it's alright..."

With an effort he stopped crying and looked up at her with big black eyes.

"I am sorry for crying, Mistress-who-saved-us-from-death - "

"Call me Rose. And you don't have to be sorry..." Theta appeared beside her out of nowhere.

"Your people were forced into slavery?"

The dwarf nodded. "We have worked for this... monstrosity... ever since."

"What sort of work? Manual labour?"

"Yes. We run treadmills or belts and the generators convert the energy and use it to power something... I do not know what..."

Theta paced up and down, stopped suddenely and looked the dwarf in the eye. "I promise you I WILL free your people."

Suddenely all the dwarves began to cheer and clap and whistle enthusiastically. The dwarf spokesman yelled above all the noise,

"We will help you, O Master-who-saved-us-from-death. We will give our lives for freedom!"

"Call me the Doctor." As the spokesman stuck out a tiny hand for him to shake, the Doctor beamed and took it gently.

He began thinking very hard. _"Rose! Show me your thought processes will you?" _

He walked up to her and rested his fingers on her temples. They spent five minutes in intense contemplation in his subconscious, where both of them were thinking together in a dream-like state. As they both had new-found, almost supernatural intellignce from the joining, they both found pure thinking thoroughly enjoyable and soon a yellow haze was spreading.

When they had both worked together to formulate the plan of action, Theta broke the link and returned to full consciousness with a warm, happy feeling due to the mist that now threatened to englf Rose. He tapped her awakeas it dispersed, and they both faced the Little Purple Men together, who had all remained completely silent in single file throughout the whole proceedings. Theta began.

"OK, first we need a spy. Could the smallest of you stand forward please?"

A Little Purple Boy stepped forward. He couldn't have been more than seven or eight years old, and looking up at the Doctor, a good three times taller than he was, he was practically shaking. Theta looked at him, crouched down and stared at the boy. He looked so scared that Theta found himself doing something extraordinary - he opened his arms wide.

"Come here." The kid ran into the Doctor's embrace, filled with a strange sensation of total trust in this complete stranger. Theta had stunned himself - he didn't open up that much - ever. Meanwhile Rose stared. Wow. Revalation! Theta didn't just want kids - he loved them...

Reading her thoughts he responded._ "It's not just that. He... reminded me of myself..." _And then Rose understood. The scared little boy all on his own. The scared Time Lord alone in the universe... _"Oh, Theta..."_

The heart-melting smile, the one reserved for her, was beamed in her direction over his shoulder and Rose felt like her soul had wings. Theta picked up the little boy and explained to the little people.

"Right, you lot. We're gonna find out a bit about this place... we need to find some way to get Kiddo here into the Central Chamber so we can find out what's going on in there... now, where can I find... ah, yes!"

He spotted a fire exit map on the coridoor wall and ran to it, ripping the laminated sheet off the wall.

"We've got the basement jail - that's the one we just collapsed..." Satisfied smiles all round.

"Ground floor, first floor, second floor, third floor, fourth floor, fifth floor right at the top, that's where the Central Chamber is... Oh hold on - there's a ventilation shaft system running through the whole thing. MIGHT just be big enough for you, Kiddo! Now hush a minute..."

Absoloute silence. Listening, the Doctor heard the soft sound of wooshing air and following the sound, found a ventilation shaft in the wall about two metres up.

"The fifth floor's just one big room, the ventilation shaft runs around it and there's an outlet... oh, a few metres along from where you come out on the fifth floor. You see?" he showed the map to Kiddo, who nodded.

"Now it's an almost vertical shaft, so you're gonna need these..." he rumaged in his jacket pocket and pulled out a pair of suction pads.

"One in each hand, got it?" He put Kiddo down and mimed climbing a vertical surface. Picking him up again he put his fingers on Kiddo's purple temples and mentally linked their thoughts.

"Now, when you reach the top of the shaft, I'll be able to share your thoughts and see through your eyes. I'm gonna go into a trance, so if there's an emergency wake me up Rose, OK? Don't worry, I'll dissolve the telepathy when you get back down. Now go!"

He stood on tiptoe and managed to push Kiddo into the large ventilation shaft. Just before he let go, he pressed a kiss to the top of his head. He'd really become attatched to the little guy... after knowing him around five minutes. As Kiddo plummeted towards the ground, the Doctor roared,

"SUCTION PADS!" And Kiddo remembered and began to pull himself up the shaft. As he disappeared Theta turned to the rest of the Little Purple Men.

"When I come out of the trance I might have an idea straight away - so be ready to do whatever I tell you. Uh... until that happens, feel free to amuse yourselves."

To his shock, one Little Purple Man pulled out a pack of battered cards, got several people interested and began dealing. The other Little Purple Men stood around talking or sat down to watch the game.

Theta turned away and ruffled a hand through his now ginger hair, causing it to stick up out of his head.

_"We're responsible for all of them now, you know..." _he told Rose.

_"We're always responsible for the whole universe now, you know that..."_

_"Well THAT makes me feel better... Sorry. Didn't mean that..." _he gazed an apology at Rose and felt her soften and smile. He stood next to her and she saw the exhaustion and fear reflected in his face.

_"Kiss me Rose..." _She was only too happy to oblige.

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There you are! And the chainsaw is back after forgetting to put it in the last chapter. Now with a drill attatchment... Review for chocolate fondu and my eternal gratitude..


	6. Chapter 6

I have a nasty feeling you're gonna hate me for writing this chapter - but it had to be done! Can I also apologize for it being so short... There will be no plea for reviews at the end - I'm making it here instead. Please enjoy:

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Several minutes later, the situation on the ground floor coridoor was much the same. 40 odd Little Purple Men were still lounging around, now comparing scars from the last time Genesis had tortured them, and the bethrothed were still wrapped in each other's arms. Suddenely Theta broke the kiss, extracted his mouth and tongue from Rose's with difficulty and straightened up.

_"Hang on... here it comes... little Kiddo's made it!"_ A smile crossed his face as he slipped into a telepathic trance.

He was seeing through Kiddo's eyes, through the ventilation shaft as the little boy rested the suction pads on the wall and looked through. The room was huge, and right in the centre of it was a giant... huge... _machine_, he supposed. It was a grotesque construstion of twisted metal, with lumps of flesh fused onto it. Human arms and legs protrouded out of the corrugated iron. And it's face... was a machine! A giant computer fused to it's face - he could see molten plastic that had hardened on the join line. Something was humming... A giant battery in the corner was being charged by a generator, and power was being fed into the creature via thick black cables that fed into the face-computer. They were charging it up! And by the looks of it, it was almost ready.

He heard voices.

"How far along is it?"

"Eighty per cent, sir."

"Excellent!" A malevolent chuckle. "It's almost time! Step up the security, and what news of the Doctor?"

"He has not appeared, sir."

"Blast! We'll have to use those humans that arrived instead. I'm suspicious about those two. From what the commander told me, they don't sound quite like ordinary humans-"

At this point, Kiddo sneezed, quite loudly. He heard the Doctor yell, "NO!" in his head but it was too late. The Leader had heard him. Quick as lightening, he turned and shot a fireball straight into the ventilation shaft, engulfing the boy. As he heard Kiddo screaming, the Doctor left the trance shaking.

Rose immediately put her hand to his temples and watched everything the Doctor had seen.

_"Oh my God..."_

Leaving his mind, she dropped down next to him and held him while he shook with sorrow and rage.

_"They killed him! They killed Kiddo! Oh Rose..." _Suddenely, he became aware of the situation around him. The 40 Little Purple Men had stopped what they were doing and were looking at him expectantly. He stood up as Rose glowed blue and began panicking.

_"Theta, we've been discovered. The guards are gonna be tooth-combing the floors for us! Do something NOW!"_

The entire plan he'd had in his head before was suddenely thrown out of the window. They'd been found out and now surprise was NOT on their side. He faced the group of Little Purple Men, who had now stringed into single file again.

"We've been found out... our spy is dead."

Panic reigned as the little men raised an uproar, yelling in their squeaky voices, running in all directions and bumping into each other. Theta raised a hand and silence fell once more.

"Listen, have any of you got ANY means of making fire? Any at all?"

The spokesperson beamed and stepped forward. "We can make fire with our tails!"

"Wait - you have tails now?" Rose looked confused while Theta looked interested.

"We have tails when we need them..." He suddenely assumed an expression of intense concentration and as they watched, a long tail began to grow out of his rear end, purple and furry. When it had stopped growing, he concentrated again and, with a small explosion, a miniature flame erupted from the pointy end of the tail, burning brightly. He held his tail proudly aloft for them to see. By this point, Rose had cracked up laughing and Theta craned his head, fascinated.

_"That's amazing! Their tails... how do they do that? They must have evolved..."_

"That's perfect!" said Rose. "Now get out the K48..."

_"How do you - oh... I'm gonna have to get used to that." _Defeated, Theta rumaged in his pocket and produced a small bright red cube. He threw it to Rose and she caught it and examined it.

_"Woah! This is strong shit!" _Theta grinned wryly.

"_Yeah! I don't carry rubbish you know..." _He adressed the Little Men.

"I take it you all know how to do that..."

"YEEEEEEEEEES"

"Okay... this cube is one powerful explosive. I need... hmm, the three strongest flamers to set this alight - it's got a 30-second fuse and this floor plus two floors above it will collapse. So before you set it off, make sure you evacuate the floor. That should cause a distraction, the Leader should have already sent most of the compound guards to look for us and he should send some more to deal with the explosion, which means the compound'll be deserted. While the chaos is in motion, you lot run off to the compound and release all your brothers and sisters. After that you owe us no further obligation. So get out of here any way you can. Got that?"

"YEEEEEEEEEES" and right at the end, one small "No..."

The spokesperson looked down the line. "Oh it's alright, that's just Dopey. Bit thick, you know. Doesn't understand much. We'll look after him..."

The Doctor gave the cube to the spokesperson and shook his hand again.

"I guess... this is goodbye."

He bowed and squeaked, "Goodbye Doctor and Rose!" All 40 of them in the line smiled and bowed.

Theta and Rose both looked one last time and gave all the Little Men a huge grin before running away.

As they dashed up flights of stairs Theta explained the plan to Rose. _"You realise what's going on? The machine's what they were gonna implant my brain into! When we turned up in disguise he wanted to use ours instead! It's huge, it's got the capacity to govern a whole solar system... the Genesis are planning to conquer the universe! Now, it's heavily guarded so it's easy to destroy. It's only made of flesh, after all. And corrugated iron. If I can get in there long enough to blast it with my sonic screwdriver... I'll only need a few seconds... there's gotta be a way..."_

Rose looked at him for a minute before speaking slowly. _"There is a way... we could always use Bad Wolf..."_

_"Again? I don't know if you're strong enough..."_

_"I could manage to shield you and myself. Make us invisible. For a few seconds... I'm not that strong though, so it'll only work at short range… I'll have to come in with you."_

He stopped, looked at her and took her into his arms. _"I... I can't lose you again." _he muttered, his face buried in her hair.

She listened to his double heartbeat. _"Theta... we don't have a choice. It'll be alright." _They moved to the door of the Central Chamber and crouched just outside it.

He put his fingers on her temples. _"Hang on... I'm gonna combine my Vortex power with yours..." _As he channeled it in Rose felt the physical power surge and watched as her fingertips crackled. They dimly heard a huge explosion downstairs rock the floor, and smiled, knowing the Little Men had done it and would soon be free.

Theta touched the gold cloth around his neck softly. _"Rose... I love you."_

She touched hers. "_I love you too."_

Then she accessed Bad Wolf, feeling the Vortex with her veins. She focused through the blinding power on making them invisible, and when Theta disappeared, she knew she was ready.

"_NOW!" _she roared, and Theta blasted open the door. He ran into the room with Rose on his heels. And after that many things happened in quick succession.

Theta flew into the room, pointed his screwdriver at the machine and blasted. The guards in the room had taken precious milliseconds to react and were now in absoloute shock, firing all over the place at the slightest hint of movement, inadvertently hitting the machine.

As Theta and Rose both dodged the bullets, Rose could slowly feel her strength sapping away. She simply did not have the strength to keep up the invisibility blocker. At last, she could feel the last of her strength leaving her. She made her final decision. She knew that if she channeled all the remaining energy into keeping Theta invisible, he'd have time to destroy the machine, end it and maybe even survive. Hell, she loved him too much to do anything less.

So, with a last effort, she outpoured all her strength into Theta's shield and watched as she became visible, so weak she could barely stand. From then on, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

As she appeared, the Spectre leader and the commander turned to look at her. With a slow smile on his face, the commander slowly cocked his gun, pointed it at her… and pulled the trigger.

As Theta yelled, the bullet shot from the end of the gun and flew towards Rose. Suddenely time sped up again. The bullet ripped straight through her heart, there was a single cry and a fountain of scarlet blood, and Rose Tyler collapsed and died.


	7. Chapter 7

For several seconds, absoloute, overwhelming shock. It ripped through Theta like a white-hot knife, leaving him unable to move. For several seconds, time and the universe ceased to exist. There was only Rose.

_Oh, Rose!_

He came back to his senses then and hit the machine with one huge blast from his screwdriver before his shield ran out of power. Fury was beginning to take the upper hand as the machine exploded violently, sending a pyroclastic stream of shrapnel and mutilated flesh raining towards them. There was a power surge as the thick cables sparked with power the machine could no longer use. Several Spectres were electrocuted. They didn't die but lay on the floor, shaking violently, then stood up again as ifnothing had happened. The Doctor saw there was little chance of him killing them. The entire room had been thown into disarray, the Spectres' plan had been destroyed and now they would have only one objective - to kill whoever had caused this.

Theta was not a violent man. Far from it. He was a man desperately in love, with a broken past and now, it seemed, a broken future. As the machine exploded, he re-appeared, ran to the crumpled body on the ground that was Rose. He took her into his arms, listened for a pulse, a breath, anything. Nothing. And he cried like a little boy as he cradled her so lovingly amidst all the blood. He was so incredibly gentle. Stroking her hair, kissing her forehead. He was, at that moment, the saddest lost soul in the universe. Once more the lonely god.

_Darling Rose... I should have died._

In his eyes was a growing fire. An all-consuming rage. He was going to go mad and he was going to kill without relent or mercy - for once uncaring of the consequences. He was going to prove to them what he really was.

The commander looked down at Rose's body and saw that the effects of the scanner had worn off when she died. He now realised her - Rose Marion Tyler. His mind flicked back to the photograph of them on Earth television. And wherever this girl was - so would be the Doctor. The commander was certain - it was he who had caused this. Right on cue, Theta's body materialised as he ran towards Rose and picked her up, ignoring the commander completely.

The Spectre Leader took the commander's gun. "I want to do this myself." He walked over to Theta, still cradling Rose, and laughed manically as he pointed the gun at his head.

"Doctor... you have ruined everything. So many years of labour, conquest, sleepless nights. I must congratulate you. But now you will find I experience the final satisfaction... not so clever now are you, Doctor? About to die... - he spoke so softly - like your little blond ape - "

He was grabbed by the collar as Theta held him in a stranglehold.

"YOU WILL NOT INSULT HER!"

The Leader pressed the gun into his neck and grabbed his wrist, cutting off the circulation painfully so Theta was forced to let go.

"Say goodbye..." He leered, about to pull the trigger.

At that moment, there was a deafening war cry. The Doctor could hardly believe his ears - it was high-pitched, squeaky but very loud. It was, to him at that moment, the best sound in the universe. What he saw was a regular army of Little Purple Men who stopped at the door, in pairs, carrying pieces of sharp metal, some with their tails alight. They were tiny, but looked frighteningly dangerous. Fierce, venemous, a real threat. They were no longer slaves. They were the Doctor's saviours.

The Leader dropped his gun in shock and Theta grabbed it quickly and pointed it at him. The Little Purple Spokesman then ran up to him, and he stared at him in amazement.

"You guys are incredible!"

The spokesperson beamed. "We could not leave you on your own, Doctor-who-saved-us-from-death..." He trailed off as he saw Rose's body on the ground, dropped to his knees and actually cried. The Doctor picked him up.

"Don't cry for her now... we've got guards to defeat!" He nodded his purple head, then remembered something and beamed.

"Oh! I taught the army the war cry. Here it is in your tongue:" He yelled to the army.

"WHO DO WE FIGHT FOR?"

"DOCTOR-AND-ROSE-WHO-SAVED-US-FROM-DEATH"

"WHO ARE OUR HEROS?"

"DOCTOR-AND-ROSE-WHO-SAVED-US-FROM-DEATH" The army squeaked together, in perfect unison. Theta smiled, his trademark grin back on his face. Rose would have loved it...

_Rose! Oh..._

No! Control! He told himself firmly.

"It's fantastic! Is that your entire race outside the door?"

"Yes! Thousands of them! All free! Half of them are on ground floor, fighting. Now we will take care of the remaining guards here... We will destroy Genesis forever!" He looked around and saw the Spectres had picked up their weapons. One fired a bullet at him quickly and he ducked. He roared to his army.

"FIGHT!" And the Little Purple Heros broke ranks into a swarming mass of death and jumped on the Speactres with a roar. Theta and the spokesman watched them all fighting tooth and nail with an intense pride.

Theta prepared to say his goodbyes. "You are the most wonderful people... thank you."

"We would not be here without you, Doctor."

The spokesman jumped on Theta suddenely and hugged him hard. A suprised Theta hugged him back before picking up Rose and cradling her in his arms again as he watched the battle continue.

He roared to all the Little Purple Men on the fifth floor for the last time. "THANK YOU AND GOODBYE!"

And to his astonishment, every single one of them stopped fighting, bowed low to the ground and squeaked in unison,

"GOODBYE DOCTOR!" before smiling at him and continuing to fight.

Returning the smile, the Doctor gazed at them fondly before suddenely turning and running off. With Rose still in his arms and her blood on his hands he knew he wasn't gonna be able to hold it in much longer. Once he got to the Tardis he was gonna break down completely. The Tardis! Where was it? He didn't know - he hadn't thought of it. He used the sonic screwdriver to probe for it and realised it was on the ground floor. He raced down the stairs.

When he arrived on ground level, he saw the fight continuing between some of the guards and the Little Purple Men. Down here there weren't as man of the little men and the guards were gaining the upper hand. Following the probe and ducking bullets and Spectres charging at him he ran into a small side room that his Tardis had been moved into. It was the nucleus of the fight, where some of the last little men left had formed a barricade around it and were clearly defending it with their lives, small as they were. The guards laughed and jeered at them as they died, and the Doctor's fury rose out of control.

"Pity the Doctor's not here to save you now... What a pathetic, emotional fool he was..." holding one little man to the ground by his neck. The little guy was seething in fury, about to be strangulated.

"The Oncoming Storm... hah! I wonder why everyone was so scared of him..."

The Doctor could feel the surge of Bad Wolf - his fury magnified the power so that he didn't even have to reach for it. He put Rose down and surrendered himself to the Vortex, feeling for the first time the gold and the blinding power.

"OH YEAH? WELL YOU'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT!" he roared in a voice most unlike his own.

Everyone turned to watch the Doctor, surrounded by swirling gold.

"THIS," he shouted, outpouring all his fury and rage, "IS WHY THEY ALL ME THE ONCOMING STORM!" He raised a hand and all the Spectres fell dead, dissolving with screams into golden dust. This took away so much of his strengh that he could barely stay conscious. Dimly, he forced himself to leave Bad Wolf behind and only just managed to scoop up Rose, unlock the Tardis, throw them both inside and shut the door before the blackness claimed him.

Waking up minutes later on the floor, it took him a moment to realise what had transpired. Then he saw Rose's body on the floor and broke down in tears. He lay there crying his eyes out until there were no more tears and he could only gaze at her with the most intense sadness on his face. He knew what it was to lose people, of course he did. It was just that losing Rose... was like losing himself. He pressed a kiss to her lips gently.

_Rose... Angel! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... I should've stopped you..._

It was then that he noticed it - a strange little yellow glow among the blue blood in Rose's veins. He got to his feet in a state of total shock. What the hell was going on? He glanced down at his veins and was astounded to see gold specks in them too. He dashed for a mirror. The effects of the scanner were beginning to wear off now, he was taller with a little brown in his hair, but his eyes. His eyes reflected gold. He ran his hands through his hair, sticking it on end. And then - it felt like his head had exploded. It was only for a second but he yelled and fell to the floor in agony. He opened his eyes as the pain subsided. Something was going on here.

"TARDIS! WHAT'S HAPPENING?" he roared as he was hit with another wave of agony.

Picking himself up again he ran to the control room and stared at Rose on the floor. She was glowing! Glowing with a golden light. Dashing back to the mirror, he realised he'd started glowing too. The Doctor was now buzzing with exitement, fear, ADRENALIN! It hit him in a rush as he realised he'd felt these symptoms before.

_Think Theta, THINK! Neither of them were human. Neither of them were Time Lord. He'd said it himself - they were a hybrid mix of Time Lord, Human and Vortex. So why did this feel familiar? Unless... no, he wouldn't allow himself to hope. They were new, untried, untested. Alone in the universe... but YES!_

_Oh yes!_

He jumped around the control room in various stages of understanding. He was now completely manic, his usual reaction to a stroke of genius. His fingers roved restlessly through his hair, his mind was on overdrive. In the midst of his bouncing, he suddenely had an idea. He raised his foot and stubbed his toe on the console. Hard.

_Ow!_

He removed his shoe and pulled off his sock. There was an angry bruise rising up on his toe. But as he watched, dumbfounded, his toe began to glow and large amounts of golden dust emenated from it. As he watched, the bruise was covered in the sparkling dust, and then healed. The skin was smooth, unmarked. It was as if the bruise had never been there. Theta remembered what had happened to his hand on Christmas Eve.

_It IS technically possible... We both have Time Lord blood in us don't we? Maybe it mixed with the Vortex and... It couldn't be could it?_

_It could._

_But he was hingeing an awful lot on his guess being right. If he was wrong Rose and him could be dying, or worse, about to end up with two heads... He just couldn't tell._

He went and got two trolleys, parking them in the control room. He gently lay Rose down on one and himself on the other, glancing at Rose as she did so. She was now covered in swirling dust. That was a good sign. Another mind-blowing agony session racked him then and he slipped into blissful unconsciousness once more. He very much hoped that he was right with his theory as to what was going on because if he was right... IF... it could mean only one thing.

They were BOTH regenerating.

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Review Review Review! The chainsaw now has a skull-cracking device! And a deadly-poison injecter! And I bought chocolate muffins!

What more can I say? I hope you liked it. :D


	8. Chapter 8

Short little chapter here for you...

AND -drum roll please- it's time to thank the reviewers! Otherwise known as the saviours... You guys who make me want to carry on writing. The following fantastic people deserve more than I can put into words: daffodilTARDIS, timerelativedimensionsinspace, ieatcannibals, bloody-ink, rie482, saiyamar, blondesavmorefun, blackhairdye, Francesanne, Krokneze, one of the riddle's, Xxdoctorwho28fanxX, WhisperLuna, ScoutGirl, HunterGiomanch and pinkTARDIS.

If I had the time I would write nice things about all of you until you all became as beetroot as pinkTARDIS... but I gotta run. Piano lesson :( Anyway, enjoy!

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The Tardis was silent for several hours after that. In the control room, Theta and Rose shone with golden light, emitted dust and triggered two large power explosions. Throughout it all, the Tardis kept a quiet but vigilant watch. She couldn't say if they were regenerating or dying, and was unusually worried about the pair lying in the control room. She posessed a deep, almost maternal affection for them. If they died... well, it would be like losing her children. Again.

Rose's soul was walking through a dark wasteland. She could see nothing through a very dense, thick fog that blanketed her vision - only a long, twisting path that she followed... simply because it was there. As she walked along, she heard a voice. A deep, echoey voice, like the Tardis but older, and distinctly male.

_"Rose."_

_"Who are you?"_

_"My child! I am the Face."_

_"The face? What face?"_

_"The Face of Boe."_

_"The Face of Boe? Theta's told me about you. What... what are YOU doing here?"_

She felt him chuckle. _"It's complicated..."_

_"Where am I?"_

_"You are... nowhere."_

_"Okay... am I alive or dead?"_

_"Ah! Now THAT... is the question. In my esteemed opinion, Rose, you are neither."_

_"Neither?"_

_"You are neither alive nor dead - you are... in between."_

_"Am I regenerating?"_

_"No... at least, not in any way that I know of."_

_"Why should I trust you?"_

He was gently insistent. _"You can trust me... like you trust yourself."_

_"That's not an answer."_

_"You're cleverer than I thought, Rose Tyler. Very well. If you ever hope to get back to life - or get Theta back, for that matter - you should trust me."_

Rose panicked. _"Theta? What's happened to him?"_

_"He is this place also, on the other side. I am talking to him as I am to you. He has asked me exactly the same questions - I see you are... joined..."_

Joined? How did HE know? Sometimes it seemed the entire universe knew more about what was going on than she did...

_"How are you talking to both of us at the same time?"_

The Face of Boe decided to ignore her. _"Due to the Vortex, you are not so dead that you can no longer come back to life. Due to the Vortex, you can never be so dead. Know this - you have the power to wish yourself back into existance. Bad Wolf is not dead but alive. You can still feel it, use it. Now, if you use Bad Wolf you will have the strength to unite your soul with your body. Which is exactly what Theta is doing right now..."_

Rose's infalliable curiosity burned. _"How - "_

_"No more questions, child. Go!"_

He left, leaving her alone again. And Rose drew upon the power of Bad Wolf once more, feeling the immense strength and the golden fire. She began the steep, exhausting climb back to life, using Bad Wolf as her lifeline. After what seemed like hours, she felt life beckon, a light-filled doorway at the end of a long, dark coridoor. In one last effort she reached out for the light and for a moment nothing happened. Then the light pulled her in and she felt herself tumbling back into existance.

Theta and Rose awoke at exactly the same time in a final explosion of light, covered in golden dust. They sat bolt upright and stared at each other. Theta took one look at Rose, saw she was alive and pulled her to him immediately, covering her face with kisses, murmuring her name. He buried his face in her hair as she listened to his hearts quietly.

_"You died..."_ he muttered into her hair, as usual trying to express his emotions and finding it hard.

_"So did you..."_She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, feeling him calm down.

_"No... I don't think I died..."_

_"Did we regenerate? The Face of Boe said - "_

_"You saw him too?" _He put his hands to her temples as they read each other's minds and found that they had, indeed, both gone through similar experiences. They both stared at each other quietly for a second before Rose repeated her question.

_"But did we regenerate?"_

_"Rose..."_

He stood up and spread his arms wide. _"Look at me! I haven't changed... and neither have you..."_

Rose ran for a mirror and he followed, grinning. Upon finding one, she stared at both their reflections.

_"The scanner wore off..." _He nodded.

_"So... if we didn't die and we didn't regenerate, what happened?"_

_"Ah! Now THAT'S the question! Come on!"_

He grabbed her hand and led her into the medic bay.

_"Right! Time to find out what's going on..."_

He took a syringe and some needles off a shelf, turned to Rose and muttered sheepishly, _"Erm... can you do it..."_

_"Do what?"_

_"The injection... I... needles..." _He paled, visibly shuddered and his meaning was all too clear.

_"You're... you're scared of needles!" _The man who fought Daleks and Cybermen... was afraid of needles! He was the Doctor, for goodness' sake! She burst into laughter as Theta winced.

_"Yeah... well..." _He stared at the floor and looked so upset Rose's emotions suddenely went through the roof and she kissed him impulsively.

_"Come here... I'll do it... now calm down, this won't hurt a bit..." _Theta proffered his arm and a syringe, then looked away, clearly quite terrified.

Sighing in exasperation, Rose quickly stuck the needle in, filled the syringe full of blood and pulled the needle out before he could feel anything, and felt him relax in relief. She examined the blood curiously, holding the syringe up to the light as he had a look at the needle puncture in his arm and looked very pleased that he had braved such an ordeal.

_"Hey... it's glowing!" _Theta stared. It was true. Countless tiny gold flecks were dissolved in his blood, and it was glowing dimly with a golden light.

_"That's not normal blood... that's not even blood." _He took the syringe from Rose and ran for his analyser. Pouring the blood into a phial, he examined it minutely under a strong microscope while Rose entered his mind and read the information he was seeing through the link.

_"Pure Vortex in our veins... Oh Rasillion... This can't be real..."_

_"What?" _She made to move out of his mind but Theta stopped her.

_"No - stay right where you are. Easier for me to think this way... with you in my head. Now, hang on... I'm gonna deepen the link..." _

And they both slipped into a sort of telepathic trance where they proceeded to crack DNA codes together using the force of their combined intelligence. About five minutes into the process, Theta had a brainwave, resulting in a huge explosion of yellow sparks as he left the trance and ran around the medic bay in his excitement.

_"I... wow. This is incredible!"_

_"THETA! What's going on?"_

He picked her up and swung her around, grinning manically.

_"If I'm not very much mistaken, Rose Tyler, I've found out what we are! We are... gods."_

_"Gods?" _This HAD to be a wind-up. _"I can't be a god... If I was I'd know, wouldn't I?"_

Theta shook his head, still grinning. _"We're not gods in the literal sense, just gods... with physical bodies, so to speak. Physical limitations. Because right now... we are the Vortex. So we couldn't just be ordinary now, could we? But being gods, we're almost immortal... we don't die, we don't regenerate, we just... get put in between until we come back to life and... we live on. Not forever... but for... well, countless millenia in the future."_

As understanding dawned on Rose a slow smile spread across her face and Theta gazed at her softly.

_"But YOU, Rose Tyler, were better than a god before you even became one - mmph!" _He was cut off by Rose, who threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Well, she had a very nice mouth, thought Theta dreamily, gold sparks erupting through his vision. Amazing, even.

His hands moved down towards her waist and then... the Tardis ground to a halt. Theta looked up.

_"Ah! We've landed!"_

_"You mean we've been moving all this time?"_

_"Seems like it... hmm, wonder where we are..." _He ran to check the Tardis screen.

_"Present day Earth!"_

_"Perfect!"_

_"Perfect?"_

_"We're gonna have to tell Mum... we're getting married! And she's got two days to get a wedding together..."_

Theta gulped. _"D'you... think she'll take it well?"_

Rose laughed and linked her arm through his.

_"Wait - did you say... two days?"_

Rose's eyes twinkled as she dragged a dazed and terrified Theta out of the Tardis and towards his greatest fear in all the universe - Jackie Tyler. If she knew anything, her mother did NOT like being rushed into things. Two days to plan her only daughter's wedding? She just might explode when she heard that. This was gonna be so much fun...

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My chainsaw is getting tired with dissecting people so I have invested in an acid vat... need I say more?

Review! Review! Review!


	9. Chapter 9

Hello! School has started so the updates are gonna begin trickling in instead of flooding... Sorry! But here's one for you now - I can't praise the wonderful reviewers enough. Anyone who even reads this deserves my gratitude...

Please enjoy...

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Outside the door to Jackie's house, Theta was doing his best not to panic and Rose was finding the whole situation very funny indeed. Theta nervously adjusted his shirt collar and clung to Rose's hand as she rang the doorbell to the flat and waited expectantly.

As Jackie opened the door in her dressing gown and smiled at them, Rose decided to get straight to the point.

"Mum - there's something you should know. The Doctor and I are engaged. And we're getting married... in two days!"

They both watched in alarm as Jackie yelled incoherently and made strangulated choking noises before turning blue and hitting the floor with a thud in a dead faint.

_"I TOLD you this was a bad idea..." _Theta muttered as he helped Rose cart Jackie into the living room and hoist her onto the sofa.

_"Women... they never listen... and we KNOW what Jackie's like..."_

Ignoring him, Rose looked at the clock. It was 6 in the morning... ah.

She roared up the stairs. "HAROLD! WAKE UP!" She then heard a yell of suprise and a muffled thump as Harold fell out of the bed. He was gonna take a while to wake up... Sighing, she turned her attention back to Theta, who was bending over Jackie.

_"She's gonna be out for a while... where's the banana milkshake when you need it?_

He straightened up and sulked. _"This is all somehow gonna end up as my fault, isn't it? Always does..." _He folded his arms.

Rose was exasperated. _"Look, I've got enough chaos to deal with without listening to you... Go eat some chocolate biscuits - middle cupboard, top shelf."_

He cheered up immediately and ran off in search of chocolate. Meanwhile, Jackie's colour was starting to come back, though she still looked rather pale and was unconscious. As Rose wondered what she was gonna do, Jackie suddenely awoke and shot bolt upright on the sofa.

"THE DOCTOR! WHERE'S THE DOCTOR? HE'S GONNA GET IT THIS TIME..."

"Mum - calm down! It was my idea! Not his fault!" Jackie paid no attention.

"HE'S GONNA GET A PIECE OF MY MIND - "

Harold walked in looking immensely confused and rubbing sleep out of his eyes. Judging by his appearance, he wasn't a morning person.

"What the bloomin' 'eck's going on 'ere then?"

"Our Rose... is getting married to the Doctor... in two days time!" Listening to herself, Jackie visibly paled and flopped down on the sofa again.

Harold stared and then smiled encouragingly. "I wondered when you two was gonna tie the knot!"

Jackie was fuming. "Harold... this is NOT a good thing. He's an alien..."

Rose interrupted. "But Mum, so am I... well, actually, we're... gods now."

"Oh that's wonderful. Gods! He does know how to make up stories your Doctor, doesn't he?"

"Don't talk about him like that!"

"I'll talk about him how I want to Rose Marion Tyler!"

"Oh no you won't!"

Harold's head flicked from one to the other like he was watching a tennis rally as the verbal battle continued.

"Harold agrees with me, don't you?" asked Jackie suddenely, looking at Harold pointedly. He blinked.

"I... erm..."

Jackie hissed at him. "Agree with me!"

"I... erm..."

"Oh who cares about you! Where's the Doctor?" She jumped up and stormed out into the kitchen, Rose and Harold following anxiously in her wake.

Theta was in the kitchen with a packet of chocolate biscuits, and was at that moment eating marmalade straight out of the jar with his fingers. His face was covered in chocolate, biscuit crumbs and orange gunk, and he looked gloriously happy. Spying the banana milkshake on the top shelf, he beamed and was about to reach for it when he saw Jackie in the doorway.

Rose was, by now, shaking with laughter. Apart from the fact that Theta looked _adorably_ cute covered in chocolate, her mum's face was a picture and Theta looked frankly terrified.

"_Rose! I'm too young to die!"_

He moved into the middle of the room with his hands raised above his head. He was now glowing blue-purple again with fear, and this non-human reaction only fueled Jackie's rage.

She put her hands on her hips and roared, "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY KITCHEN!"

Seeing Jackie was about to explode, Rose ran forward, grabbed Theta by his coat and pulled him out of the kitchen. She sat him down on the sofa in the living room and gazed at him fondly.

_"You have no idea..."_

_"What?"_

_"How sweet you look with chocolate on your face!"_

He smiled, his usual boyish grin Rose loved so much, and amidst all the chaos, a _moment _passed between them. One of those times when, for a few seconds, the universe existed just for them. It was pure bliss...

At that moment, Jackie stormed back into the living room and Theta scrambled off the sofa, watching her warily.

"Right!" Jackie glared at him, speaking very slowly in a forced tone of calm.

"Now, someone, preferably you, is going to tell me EXACTLY what is going on here... RIGHT NOW!"

Theta squeaked, "Ah. Yes. Of course. Um... well you see Jackie, the thing is - "

"SHUT UP! You're not making any sense at all!" Jackie barked abruptly, cutting him off.

Rose had never seen her mother in such a state before... she realised then that poor Jackie was nearing hysterics. She took her mother's hand and stroked it gently, feeling her calm down. "Mum... sit down... in fact, why don't we all sit down?" She referred to Theta and Harold, who both took the hint and sat down on the sofa. As Jackie took the armchair, Rose dropped down next to Theta, who took her hand and was starting to turn pale at the looks Jackie was giving him.

Rose decided not to let slip the fact that she had been fatally shot only a few hours ago and returned to life to find out she was a god... her mother was only human, after all. She didn't want Jackie to die of shock...

"Mum - the Doctor and I are engaged. Have been since... yesterday." She exhibited the gold cloth and pointed to Theta's.

"It's a Gallifreyan thing..." Jackie eyed the cloths.

"And... well... we're getting married... on Saturday... which if I'm not mistaken is in two days time..."

"I've got TWO DAYS to get a wedding together..." Jackie looked menacingly at Theta.

"It wasn't me! I didn't know anything about it! It was her idea!" Theta babbled in a high-pitched voice. Rose gave him a stony glare and he subsided.

"You two want to get married... on Earth? Why not... your planet?"

Theta stared at the floor suddenely, depressed. Rose stroked his hand softly before turning back to Jackie.

"His planet - Gallifrey - was destroyed in the Time War. All his people were murdered. He's the only one left..."

Jackie inhaled slowly. "Oh." She looked at Theta. "I'm sorry."

He looked up an gave her a brief smile. "S'okay. Wasn't your fault..."

"So, this wedding... can you do it, Mum? For us?"

Jackie sighed. What choice did she have? Rose was her only daughter... and shopping WAS what she did best...

She leapt off the sofa. "LET'S GO!"

Rose grinned but Theta looked apprehensive. "Does this mean... shopping?"

He was dragged out of the door again by Rose, protesting all the way.

Five minutes later Theta found himself stuck firmly in the back of Harold's battered truck, which had been found miraculously unharmed after Earth's invasion. Harold was driving, Jackie was strapped in next to him armed with a long list of shops and designer chainstores to visit.

_"Now THIS..." _he told Rose next to him, _"... is why I don't do domestic..."_

He sulked. Sitting there in the car with his arms folded and his face still covered in chocolate, he looked exactly like a grumpy five-year-old. Rose rolled her eyes.

_"You're completely insane! Remind me why I'm marrying you..."_

And Theta's mood completely changed at the possibility of doing just that. His eyes twinkled with mischeviousness as he grabbed her and captured her lips with his...

_Wow, _thought Rose as Theta carried her out of the truck. So this was why she was marrying him. The half-hour drive had been very... productive, to say the least.

Theta set her down on the ground and beamed at her. They were BOTH now covered in chocolate and marmalade, which Theta then proceeded to lick off her face, much to Rose's initial shock and amusement.

_"Argh! This a Gallifreyan thing?"_

He paused in his licking. _"Gallifreyan? Nah, not really... I just like chocolate. And marmalade. And licking. And... you." _Earning himself another thorough kissing.

"Oi! You two!" They wereinterrupted by Jackie, who had now gotten out of the car with Harold in tow, and after berating him for his TERRIBLE driving, was rounding everyone up to look at suits and dresses.

"Jackie!" called Harold. "I've gotta take the truck back now - my shift's startin'. How long are you gonna be?"

"A good few hours I should think..."

"Tell you what, call me when yer need picking up an' I'll be there."

"Aw thanks sweetie!" Jackie wrapped Haold in a bone-crushing hug and planted a smacking kiss on his lips before letting him go looking rather dazed as he ran off back to the truck.

"Right you two!" announced Jackie. "Shopping! Come on..."

And she led the way towards the huge bank of department stores, Theta and Rose holding hands and following in her wake.

Before long, they arrived in front of a giant glass building, Jackie rubbing her hands in anticipation. Theta looked up at it with distaste.

_"Shopping... ugh!" _He wrinkled his nose as Rose grinned at his reaction.

Jackie took charge. "Okay, Doctor, you can go and buy a new suit... Here." She stuffed a wad of noted into his hand and pointed him in one direction.

"And Rose and I will go and buy the bride's dress... which you are NOT allowed to see until the wedding." She gestured in the opposite direction.

Theta looked extremely miserable at the prospect of being parted from Rose... in a _shopping mall_, no less... He looked down at Rose before wiggling his fingers in their clasped hands. It was something he had taken to doing with her in this body as a way of saying goodbye.

She smiled up at him and he crushed her to him suddenely before planting a kiss on her forehead and sauntering off in the direction Jackie had indicated.

As Rose and Jackie walked together towards the dress shop, Jackie began questioning Rose.

"You really do love him don't you?"

Rose sighed. "For goodness' sake, Mum, YES, I do love him. That would be the reason I'm getting married on Saturday..."

"Oh, I'm sorry Rose... but it's difficult, you know? You're both alien..."

They entered the dress shop then and an extravagant cream silk creation caught Jackie's eye, distracting her completely from her former thoughts. Jackie ran to the dress, cooed over it and examined it critically, a process which took several minutes. After much deliberation, Jackie added it to the pile she wanted Rose to try on. They then proceeded to the next dress Jackie liked, and the choosing continued.

"We'll tour the shop from left to right until we get to the changing rooms at the end..." Jackie announced after fifteen minutes, looking at a map of the shop.

As Jackie said those words Rose heard Theta in her head.

"_GOD I'm bored!"_

_"What? How can you be bored already?"_

_"Well, I bought the first suit I saw... and am now waiting outside your dress shop..."_

_"Ah. We're... gonna be a while."_

Jackie added another three dresses to the pile Rose was carrying.

"_Humph! You silly humans... worrying about dresses... you'll look beautiful anyway..." _He added softly.

Rose smiled at those words - but her attention was distracted at that moment by Jackie waving both her arms in front of her face.

"Hello? Rose?" And she steered Rose on to another display of dresses.

One long and tiring hour later, they arrived in the changing rooms. Jackie set down the pile and handed the first one to Rose.

"Here, try this on..."

As Rose stepped out of the changing room and looked at herself, they both simultaneously decided, "Nah..." and Rose tried on the next one.

She had gone around halfway through the pile when she stepped out in a dress that instantly won both their approvals.

"Wow. Fantastic!"

"It's perfect."

_Theta is gonna FLIP when he sees this..._

They bought the dress immediately and headed out to be met with a grumpy Theta who was leaning against the wall and sulking while working out the Russell Paradox in his head. When he saw Rose and Jackie emerge from the shop he smiled in relief.

"Finally! Honestly, how long can you women spend in shops?"

"That? That was nothing! You're marrying our Rose! Get used to this..." Theta paled and gulped.

Rose took his hand then, reading his thoughts, and he looked down at her.

_"Shopping? Nah. Who needs shopping when there's the entire universe to see?"_

_"Rose Tyler!" _He beamed, delighted she agreed with him, and kissed her. _"You know me too well..."_

They proceeded to the cake shop, which happened to be just down the street. Theta looked at the creations in the window in amazement. As they went inside, he gasped and ran around looking at all the cakes, like a little boy in a sweetshop.

Jackie proceeded straight for the counter.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a wedding cake..."

"Certainly. How many tiers?"

"Erm... three would do..."

"What flavours did you have in mind?"

"Chocolate!" burst out Theta before he could help himself. Jackie glared at him.

The shop assistant ushered them in to a display table full of cakes. Theta and Rose both made a bee line for a large chocolate three-tier, the only one in the room. It looked simply magnificent...

"This one!"

"This one, please Jackie!"

"What? But... NOBODY has a chocolate wedding cake..."

"Oh go on Jackie!" Theta displayed his best, flashiest grin for her.

"It HAS to be chocolate Mum!"

"Can we put a banana on top?"

Everyone turned to look at him for a minute before pretending he hadn't said anything.

Jackie relented, and after arranging delivery and haggling over the prices, they were finally allowed to leave the shop.

Outside, Jackie consulted her long list and decided they needed to spend at leat the next few hours shopping for various attatchments, odds and ends and hiring a hall. As she said this Theta cracked, went down on his knees and begged Rose to spare him the torture.

Rose pulled him up. "Mum, he's gonna explode if he stays here any longer. I can feel it..."

"Okay, okay!" Jackie dug around for some spare change.

"Where do you want to go?"

"The Zoo!" yelled Theta suddenely, his face lighting up.

Jackie rolled her eyes, pressed the money into Rose's hand and turned away, yelling over her shoulder,

"Be back here by 5:30 or you're finding your own way home!" She promptly left in search of shopping and relative sanity.

On her way down the street, she gazed back suddenely on impulse. Theta and Rose were walking together down the road, holding hands, heads bent close together. Quite like a normal couple... with the exception of telepathy. And the barely noticeable yellow aura surrounding them. She sighed. Her daughter... was a god. And was getting married. To another god. On Saturday... She shook her head to clear it as the knowledge sunk in.

Would she ever get used to it?

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Hmm... I now have... ten shrapnel bombs, a tank of toxic waste, and... chocolate milkshake! Please review!


	10. Chapter 10

Hello! The next two chapters are fluff with a plot, in that order, where previously it was a plot with fluff, in that order. The emphasis has changed, people! But if my attempts at the Doctor courting Rose fail, lemme know okay? Enjoy! Reviewers will be thanked next chapter!

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Theta had tired himself out at the zoo... made faces at the monkeys, tried to get into the penguin pool with the other five-year olds, talked telepathically to the lion and freaked it out... Rose remembered the poor lion snarling at her and then being reduced to a whimpering wreck as Theta gave it a good telling off for roaring at his "darling Rose".

He had then rather sweetly bought her a triple chocolate ice-cream cone with chocolate sauce and chocolate flakes... apparantly he was friends with the owner of the ice-cream van. It was a VERY good job she liked exactly the same foods as he did because he then persuaded the ice-cream man to put marmalade on top...

He took her to the local park, where he persuaded her to climb to the top of a large tree, ignoring the curious stares of the many passers-by. Sitting up in a large branch with Theta, Rose was startled to discover her fear of heights had mysteriously vanished, and was speechless at the view of the park their tree afforded.

_"I... wow."_

_"NOW you know how the monkeys feel..." _She gave him a strange look. He thought she was confused and did a monkey impression for her benifit.

_"Remember... the monkeys? No?" _She laughed so hard at this she nearly fell off her branch and Theta grabbed her quickly. As she took his hand, they both watched the tiny yellow spark display that appeared where they touched and smiled.

She swung from her branch and jumped to the ground, landing on both feet with ease. Theta dropped down beside her and gave her a grin.

_"Now you're getting it!"_

They spent the rest of the day chasing squirrels through the park. Being a new hybrid humanoid, he came very close to catching them on several occasions. As he dashed around the park, Rose saw a flash of red pass by, and sprinted for it on impulse. She couldn't say why. It might have had something to so with the Doctor's genes in her veins. A sudden compulsion to catch anything that was moving. She shot out her hand and managed to get a firm grip on the squirrel's tail. It was beautiful, she thought. Very small for a squirrel too. And it's eyes were bulging out of it's head due to the fact that she was holding it upside down. Watching the poor thing dangle there with some amusement, she motioned Theta over and was astonished at the tender and fascinated look in his eye as he saw her stroking the squirrel gently, right side up.

_"Oh! Rose... can I see?" _And delight reigned.

After exhausting himself in the park, being pushed into a large muddy puddle by Rose and tickled senseless, and working out the entire evoloutionary line of the common squirrel, Theta made it back to the square incredibly late, arguing ferociously about who exactly had gotten them hoplessly lost trying to find said square.

One look at the town hall clock said it all. They made a beeline for the nearest bus stop. When the large double decker arrived, Theta dashed for the top deck and found a desolate row right at the back. He smiled drowsily at Rose, curled up next to her and fell asleep almost immediately.

It was a courtship... of a sort. Done the Doctor's way, Rose supposed with a grin, stroking his hair. That man really was the most unromantic idiot she'd ever seen. He was getting married to her on Saturday... and he took her chasing squirrels? However... through it all he loved her senseless. That much was obvious. And even though he was so insufferable - the ultimate hyper-active genius - she felt exactly the same.

She looked down and discovered that he had latched onto his thumb again and was making little sucking noises. He was also... drooling on her hand. Fantastic. Rose sighed but couldn't stop a slow smile as the bus drove on down the road.

As the bus ground to a halt outside Jackie's estate, Theta woke up, found himself curled up against Rose, and smiled happily. She showed him her hand with a patronising gleam in her eye and he looked at it sheepishly before attempting to lick the slobber off her hand. Restraining him, she dragged him out of the bus and out into the night. Seeing she was shivering, Theta took off his coat and draped it around her without hesitation. Even though he was cold too...

_"Right - let's get you inside, you're freezing!"_

Seeing how tired she was, he picked her up and carried her indoors. They were almost at the flat when a flash of red suddenely leapt out of Theta's coat pocket and onto Rose's shoulder.

_"It's... the squirrel!" _Theta whispered almost inaudibly. The squirrel sat primly upright on Rose's shoulder and suddenely stuck out a tiny paw for Theta to shake. Rose stared in amazement as Theta solemnely shook the squirrel's paw.

_"Is that... a normal squirrel?"_

_"They must respond differently around us... Animals sense the presence of the Vortex much better than humans do, and it changes them."_

_"So this... is now a hybrid squirrel?"_

_"From the moment you touched it!" _Rose grinned at the squirrel.

_"See - it's red instead of grey, it just shook my hand..."_

_"Can it talk to us?"_

_"No... at least I don't think so... but it understands us perfectly - and it'll make sure we understand it..."_

The squirrel leaned back into Rose's shoulder and made little chirruping noises. _"Can we keep it? Please?"_

He stared. _"Whatever made you think I'd leave it behind?" _

He gazed at her and laughed softly. _"You've changed so much Rose Tyler... you were the one who didn't want to keep Arthur..."_

_"I... you..."_

Theta read her thoughts and cracked up. _"PLEASE don't tell me you were jealous of a horse!"_

_"Well... you liked him..." _She glared at him.

_"And at the time... you thought I didn't like you..." _He finished for her. _"Jealousy. Happens to all women... I'm just irresistable..."_

The squirrel snorted. Rose turned to look and saw the mirth on it's little face, while Theta stared at the squirrel in disbelief that it was backing Rose up.

"I like you." Rose told the squirrel and it chirruped happily.

_"You are SO full of it!" _She informed Theta, who grinned knowingly.

_"You love it really..." _Rose hit him.

As he cowered she cracked her knucles menacingly and the squirrel bared it's teeth at him and he stood there slightly scared of them both... until she ran her fingers through his hair and admitted that she did love it really. Which made him beam and take her into his arms and admit _exactly _what he loved about her - and they would have gone on in that fashion for some time... if the squirrel hadn't started making sick noises over Rose's shoulder. It folded it's little red arms and sulked, bored with the two of them making eyes at each other.

Theta remembered something. _"You know, I hadn't thought... what're we gonna call him?"_

_"Erm... I don't think it's a he..."_

_"How do you know?"_

_"You can feel genders when you think about it... just use the vortex..."_

Theta thought really hard, and suddenely was able to feel the gender pull from every living thing in the universe. Closing that window of thought quickly before it all became too much for him, he concentrated on the squirrel and found that it was, indeed, female.

_"Well, women are good with names... you think something up." _Men. Was that their attitude to everything?

Rose thought about it. _"Hmm... Stephanie's a lovely name, so's Maryam, Brooke, Emily, Laura, Alice, Alexandra, Bethany, Michelle... Katie!"_

_"Katie?" _He considered it. One of the prettier human names.

_"Katie it is!" _He grinned. _"Katie the Hybrid Squirrel. I like it!" _Katie chirruped her approval and stuck her teeth out.

He shivered involuntarily then, and Rose put a hand on his arm to find it was ice-cold and a little blue. She took off his coat and gave it back to him in alarm, wrapped it around him, then pulled him towards the door of the flat. As she did so, Katie hopped into Theta's coat pocket like she'd been there all her life, curled up in a ball and went to sleep.

Rose rumaged around for her key, found she didn't have one, and hammered on the door instead. An irritable Jackie was brought to the front door.

"You two! It's ten o'clock in the evening! Where on earth have you been?"

"It's a long story - "

"Don't tell me!" interrupted Jackie, putting her hands over her ears.

"Whatever it is, I don't want to hear it! I've had enough insanity for one day, thank you very much!"

Theta's teeth chattered. Rose took one look at him and dragged him into the house, past Jackie, to the living room, where... DOZENS of people littered the room. Upon seeing Rose, they all fell silent. Then...

"Congratulations dear!" Grandma Mildred hobbled to the front of the group.

Twin cousins Pete and Andy gave her wolf whistles and grins from a corner of the room.

"MUM!" Rose roared. "GET IN HERE!"

Theta began to panick. _"Rose! All... these people... can't think!" _He dragged her into a broom cupboard, grabbed her and clung to her tight, turning pale and shaking with nervousness.

And for once, being joined to him, Rose understood perfectly. She disentangled herself from his arms and took his hand.

_"Shh! I know... Now you are gonna be brave... Stop!" _She added hastily as he began hyperventilating. His eyes rolled back in his head and she could see he was about to lose it. So she slapped him. Hard.

And he snapped right out of it.

_"Ow! Thank you!"_

_"Theta! You're the man who faces Daleks and Cybermen! My family won't kill you! Now hush!" _She wiggled her fingers in their hands and he smiled at the familarity of the gesture.

_"Okay..." _He gazed at her, suddenely aware how beautiful she was in the dim yellow light. How her eyes shined in the semi-darkness...

They were heading for a _moment _again when Jackie came in from the hall, more stressed than Rose had ever seen her. She was muttering under her breath. "Right... Uncle Jacob's coming in tomorrow, that's a whole party of eight from Lincolnshire... Grandpa Ted's flying over tonight from Australia, should make it over just in time - "

Rose pulled Theta out of the cupboard. "Mum! What are all these people doing here?"

"Well you are my only daughter, so I decided to make this wedding as big as I could get it! The entire extended family's over! We're hiring three halls and the local cathedral... three thousand people..."

Rose was nearing hysterics. "There... are gonna be... three thousand people... at my wedding?"

Jackie beamed. "A little more than that, really. It's the event of the year - I invited the whole town over!"

_"Rose... breathe..." _Theta murmured as Rose began suffocating.

"Word spread - your suprise wedding - two days to prepare - shocked the local press, it did. They're paying me to feature your story. TV cameras and news reporters are coming, they are, an' all! I'm so proud!"

She bustled away and Theta and Rose stared at each other for a moment. Suddenely Theta took her hand.

_"I - I can't stay here!"_

Rose wholeheartedly agreed and they both ran out of the house and into the carpark. They sprinted for the Tardis that was there waiting for them and ran inside, where Rose slumped against a console as Theta locked the door and hung up his coat.

They grabbed each other instinctively at the same time and held on tight.

_"Oh my God... does she realise what she's done?"_

_"I should've told my mum to make it small. I do NOT want the PRESS at my wedding!"_

_"Rose... that's not the worst of it..."_

She realised the truth. _"Theta... what if she let slip... the fact that you or I are alien?"_

_"Knowing your mother, that's almost certainly happened..."_

_"They're gonna recognise us! From that photo on the Attack of the Spectres! The saviours of the planet are alien!"_

_"The government... forget that, the entire planet's gonna be on our tails after this!"_

_"Your STUPID mother..." _And, for once in her life, Rose agreed.

She kissed him suddenely, so passionately he was dazed, his eyes glazed over as they parted.

_"Don't leave me..."_

He stared in shock. _"What? Leave you?"_

_"I... cos it's kinda my fault... this... problem and the whole wedding thing... you don't like people, and... I'm sorry!"_

To his utter amazement, she began sobbing in his arms. He gingerley stroked her hair and held her close as she cried. He was completely unused to holding hysterical girls in his arms, and it showed. He didn't mind too much, however.

_"What's brought this on now, eh?" _She was soaking his shirt...

Rose sobbed, _"You're so angry with me..." _He could have laughed. Angry? With her? The most important thing in his universe?

He bent down to Rose's level and looked her square in the eye.

_"Rose Tyler! Now you're going to tell me... how the HELL could I be angry with you?"_

And she stopped right there and looked at him. For one long long moment. Just looked at him. Then she threw her arms around his neck and he smiled.

_"I love you so much!"_

He grinned. _"Love you too!" _He set her down.

Rose yawned into his shoulder and he felt how tired she was. He picked her up and carried her into her room and onto her bed, laid her down on it and found her asleep within seconds. He watched her there for several minutes with a fond expression on his face before padding back to the control room and looking out of a window, just thinking about... everything. Sensing Rose was having a 'thinking' dream, he floated back into her head from time to time to offer alternative solutions to her integral calculus. He was never gonna get used to that. Even though it seemed so... _right _that Rose should have the same dreams he did.

A few hours later, Rose stumbled into the control room, running her fingers through her hair. He turned and smiled.

_"Hello! But... it's four in the morning!"_

_"Really?" _She looked out of the window and saw it was still dark. The sun hadn't even risen yet.

_"Oh! We forgot to feed Katie!"_

They looked in Theta's coat pocket and found she wasn't in there.

_"Great! Lose your squirrel on it's first day..."_

_"Listen!" _commanded Rose. They could hear a faint scrabbling sound from the kitchen.

In there was Katie, who had managed to get down a packet of biscuits and was now enjoying a chocolate digestive twice the size of her head. Rose laughed as she watched it coat it's little face in chocolate, just like Theta did. Those two were kindred spirits.

Theta picked Katie up, ignoring her angry chattering in protest at leaving her biscuit. He sat her in the palm of his hand.

_"Right, listen up, you. You get free run of this place - but don't go near the milk, you'll drown in it, and don't try to run a bath either..." _he added as an afterthought. _"Got that?"_

Katie chirruped and he put her down, where she returned to her biscuit as if nothing had happened. He stroked her tail briefly and she turned, gave him a toothy grin and nipped his finger gently.

So there was a hybrid squirrel living in his Tardis... He went back to the kitchen with Rose, shaking his head. He took her into his arms automatically and she rested her head on his chest and listened to his hearts beating through his shirt.

_"Right!_ _Now... we're gonna work out how on earth we're gonna get ourselves out of this mess..."_

_"We CAN'T get married in front of all those people! What about... the sparks? OR if something else happens and we collapse? What if we start glowing yellow?" _

_"It's too dangerous... they might dissect us if they find out..."_

He looked at her wistfully. _"Much as I'd like to run away, that might just cause a riot if your press already knows about this wedding..."_

_"You wanna... elope?" _Suggestive gleam in her eyes. Theta gulped. His life just got that little bit stranger. He stared at Rose and found that indeed, there was nothing he wanted more than to whisk her off in the early hours of the morning to the nearest church and marry her now... Nine would NEVER have believed this...

Rose smirked. _"Yes, you do. I can sense it..."_

Damn telepathic link! But ah! She wanted to as well. The idea was so tempting...

_"But if I married you now..."_

He allowed himself to dream... If he married her now he could take her to Barcelona... he wouldn't have to go through another day of shopping, not to mention a huge wedding. The images that flashed down the link of exactly what he could do in a bed with Rose were enough to set them both blushing...

He remembered something. _"I can't do it! Jackie would kill me!"_

_"Theta... if we don't do something about the situation, we're both gonna be dead meat... after we're dissected! Or kept in cages for the rest of our lives!"_

_"Why can't we just tell Jackie?"_

_"It's no use - she's already told the media and invited the town..."_

_"But we're only a minor news feature, aren't we? Maybe we could get away with it..."_

This really was crazy. He was a man who didn't do domestic. And here he was trying to arrange a wedding without being plagued by media attention! How the HELL had this managed to happen?

_"Get away with what?"_

He made his decision. _"Get away with what I have in mind... If this goes to plan, we could be married today, right here, and fly away in the Tardis without anyone thinking there's anything wrong..."_

_"I'm interested..."_

_"OK. What I'm proposing is that... I fake my own death... and everyone thinks you're distraught... and the wedding is cancelled and we can...elope..." _He turned the deepset shade of red as he said the last word, but his eyes were shining at the possibilities.

_"Theta... is that REALLY necessary?"_

_"Playing dead you mean? Well yes - I can't think of anything else that would shake something this big... can you?"_

She nodded in agreement, reached up to touch his face with her fingers.He gave an involuntary groan as her fingertips brushed that sensitive spot on his neck and she smiled, mastering him completely through the yellow haze.

Great. All she had to do was touch him and he was rapidly loosing control... She caressed his lower lip slowly with her thumb. The feeling was exquisite. But she was going to have to stop or he wouldn't be able to think straight...

_"Rose..." _He pinioned her arms down, darted forward and kissed her. It was her turn...

He pulled her head in closer and bit her lip gently as she yelped in shock and squirmed in his arms. Well, they had hours until Jackie would be awake and they could swing their plan into action. Plenty of time to... play. And boy was this was gonna be a fun game...

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Hope you liked! Very Romeo and Juliet, isn't it? You're about to see startling similarities. I have plans for these two... oh yes...

My dear chainsaw... is back from maintenance. Freshly shined! Now with rotating circular saw attatchment... And I am NOT afraid to use it! So please please review!


	11. Chapter 11A

Alright, I've decided to cheat. This is Chapter 11A because when I write the rest of Chapter 11 I'm gonna add it to this and post it up. I just thought this was a nice temporary ending... I'll thank reviewers when Chapter 11 is complete, I promise! Enjoy...

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At quarter to nine in the morning, Jackie Tyler was awoken by a hammering on the door. Honestly, she thought. Did _no-one _ring the bell these days? She answered the door, carefully stepping over the three sleeping bags in the hallway that contained guests for the wedding, to reveal Theta and Rose, both looking amazingly disheveled with swollen lips, flushed and quite dazed, with dreamy smiles on their faces. Heaven only knew what _they'd _been doing...

Putting all unwanted thoughts firmly out of her head, Jackie waited expectantly.

Rose started, "Mum, we've decided to cancel the wedding -" Here, Theta clamped her hand over her mouth and ignored the muffled protests from Rose. He did NOT want another hysterical Jackie on his hands... he just hoped Rose hadn't done enough damage already...

Jackie began shaking and quickly muttered her mantra over and over, "I will not faint... I will not faint..." Eventually she stopped, calmed down and asked the first question that came into her head.

"Is this gonna happen every time you two knock at the door?" Glaring venomously at both of them.

Theta paled and shook his shook his head frantically. "N-no Jackie, we won't ever bother you again - ever ever ever!" Wiggling a finger for emphasis and stamping his foot on the ground with each "ever". Jackie gave him a strange look and Rose put her head in her hands in exasperation.

_"That was NOT necessary..." _she muttered to him down the link.

Theta decided, "Look, we can't talk here, let's go in the Tardis -"

"NO! I MOST CERTAINLY WILL NOT! I'm not going in that... alien thing! God knows where it might take me! I have... or I _did _have - pointed glare at both of them - a wedding to arrange. There are 15 people crammed into this flat and another 200 in the nearest hotel. You know how much you mean to everyone, Rose. The first wedding in the family. And when they found out it was going to be this big... Why on earth have you changed your mind?"

"Mum... can we have a little... privacy?" She gestured to the sleeping bags in the corridor, the occupants of whom were beginning to stretch, yawn and rub their eyes.

Jackie looked around and finally nodded. "Alright... we'll find a cafe... just lemme get changed..."

She disappeared inside the flat, leaving Theta and Rose alone outside the flat.

_"Do you think... she can take it? Please don't let Jackie faint in the cafe..." _he pleaded with Rose.

_"She'll have to take it... my mum's tough, you know. She's been through a lot. Aliens have invaded Earth SO many times and she's hung in there through it all being... well... Jackie, I suppose."_

Theta smiled thoughtfully. _"A true citizen of Earth... God himself would fear the wrath of Jackie Tyler... but I like her." _The last part was muttered very quickly and almost inaudibly... but he had said it. He had said it! And he hadn't regretted it. Well... not too much.

And Rose was smiling her gratitude at him, turning his thought processes into incoherent mush and melting his heart before she said a single word...

Jackie led them into the town square ten minutes later and into a small cafe.

"Rodrigo's wife owns this place. Quite up market isn't it? They're replacing the chips with sautéed asparagus…"

At that moment, Theta reverted to his sugar rush phase, ran in, his arms spread wide, and announced loudly, "Yes! Very nice place! Excellent in fact!" Completely and utterly hyper.

Jackie stared at him, and gave Rose a withering look.

"Rose... why the hell are you marrying this man?"

"You asked me that before..."

"So I did... it won't convince me..."

Rose wondered if her mother would ever come round. At that point, Theta bounded back from his inspection of the cafe and Katie leaped out of his coat pocket, where she had been hiding, and perched on Rose's shoulder.

"Hello Katie!" Rose grinned at the squirrel, who chirruped happily.

At Jackie's questioning glare Rose stopped. "Oh - this is Katie. We met her in the park, and... changed her. She's a hybrid squirrel... Mum, Katie. Katie, Mum."

Katie stuck out a little paw for Jackie, who stared at her in disbelief.

"A... hybrid squirrel...?"

"Just shake her paw, go on Mum..."

So Jackie took the squirrel's little paw and shook it gently and Katie chirruped before leaning back into Rose and cleaning her whiskers like nothing had happened.

"Come on, let's find a table..." Jackie muttered, leading them to a small private corner.

Theta grabbed the menu, flashed through it and slumped in his chair.

_"I can't believe it!"_

_"What?"_

_"They don't have banana milkshake!"_

_"Aww... you poor thing..." _Her eyes sparkled with amusement and he grinned at her.

"Right!" Jackie announced. "What'll you have... please tell me you eat... food..."

Theta sighed. "Yes Jackie... I do eat food..."

"Not... safety pins? Grass? Hubcaps?" He gave her a _very _strange look then.

"... not hubcaps. Can Katie and I have chocolate biscuits please?" Katie nodded her approval.

Rose cut in, "Never mind the biscuits, they do brownies here don't they Mum?"

_"Brownies?"_

_"You never had brownies before?"_

_"No... what are they? An Earth specialty?"_

_"Sort of..." _He was gonna love this...

Jackie called over the waitress and ordered brownies and tea.

"Now," she began, "You are gonna tell me exactly what is going on... Oh Lord, how many times have I said this before?" She asked herself, shaking her head.

"What do I have to do... to remain sane? Am I destined to lead an abnormal life?"

Theta looked at her slowly. "You're not," he said. "But your daughter is..."

He looked at Rose. "It's complicated isn't it?" he asked her so Jackie could hear. And she smiled. And he felt like he was flying. _Again. _Wow.

He was brought out of his daze by the arrival of the brownies and tea. Theta and Katie both took one look at the brownies and began jumping up and down. Feeling Katie bouncing on her shoulder in anticipation, Rose picked her up with a grin and deposited her on the table, where she made a bee-line for the plate of brownies. Both of them grabbed them and stuffed their faces with enthusiasm.

Rose grabbed one brownie they hadn't demolished after five seconds and bit into it. She was amazed. The brownies were among the best she had ever tasted...

_"Rose! Why didn't you tell me about these before?" _It was a good job they were telepathic because his mouth was so stuffed with chocolate she doubted she'd have understood a word if he'd spoken aloud.

Theta and Katie ate the entire plate of brownies within seconds. Somehow, they had both managed to coat their faces in chocolate and brownie crumbs. Katie's stomach swelled to around twice its normal size as her hybrid squirrel digestive system tried to cope with the sudden chocolate rush. She fell flat on her back, her four little legs sticking straight up into the air, in a dead faint. Theta picked her up, laughing.

_"No more chocolate for YOU..." _He put her in his coat pocket, from which loud snoring began to emanate within minutes. Rose looked into his pocket in some amusement.

_"Katie snores?" _

He chuckled. _So did you, you know. That time I took you to New Mars and you got hopelessly drunk on... what was it... the strongest alcoholic beverage on the planet... Aphrodisiac Whiskey! Now that WAS an experience..."_

Rose scowled and blushed scarlet. _"Don't even THINK about telling anyone!"_

_"Rose Tyler!" _He pretended to be affronted. _"As if I would!" _The smirk on his face told her otherwise...

He gazed at the brownie in her hand before snatching it from her. Rose glared at him… and then he did something completely unexpected. He raised the brownie to her lips softly. Taken completely aback, Rose began to eat it automatically – and that was when she noticed quite what she was doing, and stared at him. Theta was blushing furiously. He hadn't meant to do that… but Rose thought there was something incredibly romantic about it. She grinned at him and he blinked and smiled sheepishly. His shy geekiness crept back on him again and Rose thought it was absoloutely irresistible. So she did what any girl would under the circumstances. She kissed him. He pulled away, and she saw his eyes darken with sudden desire. Slowly, he fed her the rest of the brownie… and let it suffice to say that things carried on from there.

After a few minutes Jackie couldn't take it any longer and cleared her throat loudly. Theta and Rose were abruptly awoken from their chocolate-kissing session and gazed at her stupidly. They were beginning to glow yellow again – Rose took Theta's hand and the sparks fizzled, attracting curious stares from the customers. She scowled at them and they all looked away hurriedly.

Jackie started again and asked in her politest tone, "OK. Doctor… would you kindly explain… what the HELL is going on here!" Snarling the last phrase at him.

"Jackie… we'd love to have a big Earth wedding, really we would… it's just that we're not human, we're alien. Hybrid alien. More than that… living gods. The only two in the past, present and future of the universe. I'm almost certain what Rose did is never going to happen again. Do you understand that?"

Jackie nodded. Rose thought she was taking it very well, considering. No shaking or weakness so far…

"Your Earth press – bless them, they never get anything remotely interesting to report on – well, if ANYTHING sub-human happens on the wedding day, they'll freak out. Go mad. Have a field day!"

Rose continued. "And we'll get taken away, dissected and put in cages… or worse. So… the Doctor has a plan. To save us. And that's why we need your help. To put this together. Now Mum – can you do this? For us?"

She looked at Jackie, as serious as she had ever been in her life.

Jackie sighed, resigned to her fate. Well, she had always been a good mother. She loved those two. Even the Doctor – although she would never admit it.

"Alright, let's hear it…"

"_Over to you…"_

Theta grinned and launched into his master plan.

"OK… well the basic idea is to create an event so big that the wedding has to be cancelled. Now the best way to do that would be if I faked my own death. I mean, you lot would all be distraught, the bride would be broken, everything would ground to a halt. And yes, it would make the press, but we don't have a choice. If ANYONE finds out we're gods, it'll make more than the press…"

"So how are you going… to kill yourself?"

"Hmm… now there's a thought. Well, it's gotta be on Earth… and it's gotta be big… you know me. I don't do ordinary."

He grinned at them both, then gazed at the huge building in the distance, across the square. "That's… the cathedral, isn't it?" He pointed.

Jackie followed his finger. "Yup. St. Thomas'. Just it's off-limits cos the gas mains are playing up… they're doing a quick maintenance job today, ready for tomorrow."

"That bell tower… it's quite high, isn't it?"

"Yup – it's quite a historical attraction, being medieval. You get people coming from across the town to see it. They'll send workmen in later, I reckon - that's where the gas problem was."

Theta gazed, deep in thought.

"Okay…" He said slowly, his wonderful manic grin spreading across his face. The grin he only got when he was planning something big.

"So… how about I'm new to this place, and I decide to check out this cathedral bell tower. When I was alone... buying Rose's wedding present. I didn't know no-one was allowed in. And I saw the cordon – but I didn't think the gas thing was anything _serious_. So I sneaked in. And when I was up there, I fiddled around with some of the piping while I was examining it, and… it blew."

He jumped out of his chair, ran his fingers through his hair frantically and began speaking faster and faster. "Giant, HUGE explosion that rocks the entire city. And I'm stuck in the middle of it. How do I get out of it? I see the pipe's about to explode, and I'm on the roof – I jump. And land on the ground unharmed, being a god. But if I carry a balloon full of red paint, I could burst it when I land. And fall to the floor covered in blood."

"And THAT, Jackie, is where you come in. Now you need to be so incredibly distraught at what's happened and whisk me away for the small private funeral under such dreadful circumstances… and while you're doing that… Rose and I are going to… elope. You know. Get married… et cetera." A tinge of red entered his cheeks.

Jackie was stunned. "It's one of the largest churches in London – and you want to blow it up? Fake your own death, fool the press and… elope? WITH MY DAUGHTER?"

"Told you he was good Mum…" Rose beamed at him.

"It could have been better…" Jackie muttered.

"Oi! I'm making this up as I go along here!"

"So that's the plan then?"

"That's the plan. Or at least…" He screwed up his eyes in thought. "Or at least, that's what the brilliant and talented author has planned for us…" He smiled softly.

The last bit was said so quietly no-one heard… but Rose and Jackie weren't paying attention anyway.

"You're my only daughter! You can't… elope… at the age of nineteen!"

"I've broken practically all the rules in my life anyway… I turned myself and the Doctor into gods! And that was only last week!"

"Yeah – if that's what she can do in a week, imagine what she can do in an eternity…"

"An eternity?" Jackie said weakly.

"Well, nearly an eternity. Being still in human form there's gotta be some sort of cut-off point but I wouldn't count on that for a long while yet… and when we die, we die together…"

"So Mum… are you with us?"

The trust radiated from Rose. Trust in this man, this alien, who turned up one day in a big blue box and whisked her away through time and space. Jackie Tyler would never understand the universe… but she wasn't stupid. She knew what she had to do.

So she nodded. And they both smiled and Theta ran up to Jackie and hugged her, then backed away in horror as he realized what he was doing. Rose laughed at him.

"_The world really has changed… you just hugged my mother!"_

"_Don't remind me…" _He scowled and got up from the table.

"Right! Well, there's no time like the present… Pay the bill Jackie!"

"What? You're gonna do this now? And why can't you pay for once?"

"Why ever not? There's plenty of people now in the square to see… and I for one do _not _want to wait to get married… and I can't pay, I'm skint at the minute."

He shrugged. "Sorry…"

Grumbling, Jackie called a waitress and paid the bill.

"What about… the explosives?"

"Oh, I've got those!" He rummaged in a pocket and pulled out… a bundle of carrots.

"_Carrots?"_

"_These are not just carrots! They're… EXPLODING carrots!"_

"_Exploding carrots?"_

He nodded. "Jackie, these are Exploding Carrots. Native to Flamasmufadgigagoria. Lovely planet, ooh, about 50 billion miles from Earth…"

At her blank expression he decided to get straight to the point.

"Now when I press the trigger button – he pulled a red button on a mini pad out of a pocket – the carrots are activated. They're pretty old technology, so they've got a 10-second fuse. Then they all... explode."

"_If they're old technology, why have you got them?"_

"_I just liked them…I mean, exploding carrots, come on. You don't get to go to the supermarket for THOSE every day..." _Rose shook her head in amusement.

_"They're incredible things, you know. Powerful as dynamite... This lot'll be more than enough."_

_"Wait... you carry LIVE explosives on you?"_

_"Yeah! You never know when you might need an Exploding Carrot..." _he retorted fiercely.

Jackie interrupted. "What about the red paint?"

"Ah... forgot about that."

"Where's the nearest D.I.Y shop?"

So they acquired some red paint and a large balloon, which Theta then prepared and secreted in his jacket pocket.

They made it back to the square and halted near the cathedral.

_"How're you gonna get in without anyone noticing?"_

_"I'll need a distraction..." _He took a box of matches out of his pocket.

_"Now the minute I do this, you make sure she doesn't get burnt, and here -_ he shoved a bottle of water into her hand - _put this on her head as SOON as everyone's looking at her. Okay?"_

_"What're you gonna do?"_

_"I'm... gonna set Jackie's hair on fire."_

_"Theta!"_

_"What? Your hair's too pretty to set on fire, and I need someone hysterical enough to cause a riot... like your mother..."_

_"Why d'you have to be such a..."_

His eyes twinkled. _"I warn you against finishing that sentence Rose Tyler!"_

_"Okay... I'll do it. Off you go then!"_

_"Wait... just..." _He gathered her up and kissed her soundly. It was a magical last kiss. The kiss of a man who was about to blow up a cathedral. Who didn't have a clue what was going to happen next. Who was making it up as he went along... all out of the simplest, most ardent... love.

_"Now you come out of this in one piece, you hear?" _Rose kissed him back, ruffled his hair and he grinned.

_"Yes ma'am!" _

Quick as lightening, he lit a match, hid it behind his hand and ran past Jackie, streaking the match gently through her hair as he did so. Without looking back, he blew the match out and ran on towards the cathedral.

"Mum, your hair's on fire!"

"What?" Jackie yelled and looked around at her hair and the smoke it was giving off.

"OH MY GOD!" She ran around the town square screaming, swearing, trailing a plume of thick, dark smoke and generally drawing in the attention of absoloutely EVERYONE in the vicinity. Rose gaped at the effect he had created. Wow. Theta was absoloutely brilliant!

She ran in dramatically after half a minute and threw the water all over Jackie's head before she could get seriously burnt, then stepped back to view the result. There was a loud sizzling noise followed by complete silence in the square as everyone gazed at this woman, clothes ripped, in a panic, with large quantities of steam billowing from her totally blackened face and hair. Jackie stood there, listening to the water dripping from her head. You could've heard a pin drop. Then -

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?"

Jackie roared and everyone turned away hurriedly before pretending nothing had happened.

Meanwhile, Theta had had plenty of time to get inside the deserted cathedral without being noticed or stopped by anyone. Jackie had performed fantastically... there were times in life when being a hysterical mother came in handy... He saw the large sign on the front that said, "GAS REPAIRS - CHURCH OUT-OF-BOUNDS", took it down and chucked it in a bush before putting his sonic screwdriver to the door lock and slipping in.

Inside, he stopped as his mouth fell open. He'd always been fanatical about architecture, and this... this was fantastic! Gothic arches, the Edwardian organ... and the stained glass windows! He pulled his glasses out, put them on and ran around looking at everything in delight.

It was all so beautiful... and he gonna destroy it. He felt a sudden sadness that he must've felt a thousand times before. But he told himself that he had to do it. And so he ran up the steep flight of stairs to the bell tower, before he could change his mind.

The bell tower was as exquisite as the cathedral itself, with a huge glass window overlooking the square. He put a hand on the huge metal bell.

"I'm sorry." He said it so softly no-one would have heard it even if there had been anyone there. But, like everything else in the Doctor's life, he had said it. And that was what was important.

He got out the bundle of Exploding Carrots and scattered them around the bell tower, for maximum effect. Then he got out the little red button on a mini-pad. And he looked at it for a second, his finger hovering over the button. Then - he pressed it.

And everything happened very quickly. A 10-second fuse! He looked at the glass window and hurled his body out of it, leaping to the tiled roof in an explosion of different-coloured glass. Everyone in the square was staring at him... He stood there on the roof, counting the seconds, staring back. 8 seconds to go... He heard incoherent screams from the ground. He yelled,

"The cathedral... it's gonna blow!"

Watching the reaction from the crowd. They assumed he was too scared to jump. 5 seconds to go... he jumped.

Soaring down to the ground. But suddenely a terrified expression appeared on his face. Because the moment his feet left the rooftop, he realised something crucial. He remembered going into that supermarket on Flamasmufadgigagoria. Remembered buying a bunch of Exploding Carrots. Then another voice,

"Would you like a spare, sir?"

And he'd bought a spare, curse it. He'd bought another one. One he'd forgotten all about. Another bunch of little ticking time-bombs which was on a five second fuse in his pocket. Because when he pressed the little red button... they ALL blew up. Oh holy shit. He was gonna explode into a million pieces in five seconds... he couldn't throw the coat off because then they would know it was his idea to blow up the cathedral. So instead he yelled down the link,

_"ROSE! GET HERE NOW!"_

And although his eyes were closed, he felt her obey. He was still hurtling towards the ground - his billowing coat had slowed his speed considerably... 2 seconds to go... People were running away now - they realised they were about to blow up. He reached the ground, threw both his arms around Rose and hugged her tight as there was a blinding explosion and everything around them slipped into blackness.

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Now review and Mr. Tennant will PERSONALLY feed you chocolate brownies... ;D


	12. Chapter 11B

Hello! This is Chapter 11B, which will eventually be tacked on to Chapter 11A, to make one big Chapter 11.

Reviewers! Thank you thank you thank you! Oh God I can't say those two words enough. People who think my little bits of nonsense are worth reading on a rainy day... worth saying something about, even. You are my sources of inspiration: daffodilTARDIS, timerelativedimensionsinspace, ieatcannibals, bloody-ink, rie482, saiyamar, blondesavmorefun, blackhairdye, Francesanne, Krokneze, one of the riddle's, Xxdoctorwho28fanxX, WhisperLuna, ScoutGirl, HunterGiomanch, pinkTARDIS, timano, biggreenflyingbox, DanielleP and anyone else I've stupidly forgotten. If I could show you how much your words mean to me I would. As it is... I'm just an ignoramus typing on a computer, so...

And we have reached the last chapter, at long last! I've fought the good fight to the end, run the race to the finish... the ending is here, and... I really hope you like it!

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Theta woke up, felt around suddenely in the fog.

_"Rose?" _His plan had failed. Oh God, what if she wasn't here?

_"Theta..." _Thank heavens he was alive...

And they found each other, clung on tight and for a few seconds, everything was alright again.

Theta held on to her hand and Rose looked up at him.

_"Where are we?"_

_"The same place we came to last time... we're both together this time, because we... left Earth... at the same time."_

_"I thought you'd died..."_

_"Um... hello? We're gods. We CAN'T die. Although our human bodies can get exploded into a million pieces..." _he added sheepishly.

Rose put her hands on her hips. _"Tell me what happened..."_

_"Well, the thing is, I kinda forgot I had a spare bunch of Exploding Carrots -"_

_"You had a SPARE?" _Rose stared at him, speechless.

_"Yeah... so I didn't remember it was there until I'd jumped, by which time it was too late... so I exploded you as well... I didn't think you wanted to see my body in loads of" bloody fragments lying around until I came back to life..."_

_"Alright, so now..."_

_"We're both bloody fragments, yeah. But we died at the same time, so at least we're together..."_

He backed away as it became clear that Rose was furious with him. At her glare he glared back.

_"Well how was I supposed to know..."_

_"My mother... an entire square full of people might be dead!"_

_"Oh..." _Theta realised he hadn't thought of that.

_"Oh GOD you are so STUPID!"_

_"STUPID?"_

_"Blowing up a cathedral! It was your idea!"_

_"Well YOU agreed to it!" _White sparks shot out of his fingers - one of them burned Rose on the nose, and he quickly retracted his hand and calmed himself with an effort.

_"If I hadn't had the idea we'd be running from the Earth press tomorrow!"_

_"But we'd still be... on Earth! In our bodies!"_

_"We'll get back to our bodies!"_

_"Our bodies are in a million pieces!"_

_"Oh..." _

Rose was working things out a lot better than he was, he realised.

_"Come here... you're burned."_

He took her into his arms and proceeded to lick the burn on her nose gently, ignoring her muffled protests.

_"Saliva has great healing properties you know... Wonderful stuff, packed full of lactoferrins and immunoglobulins..."_

Her eyes rolled heavenward but she kissed him softly anyway. Now, exactly why him talking science turned her on so much she had no idea... it just did. The yellow sparks flew, surrounding Theta in a mist. This was his idea of heaven. Rose was up against him, moaning into his mouth and he could have quite happily carried on doing this all day but -

_"Rose... how are we gonna get out of here?"_

She looked up. _"Ah... well last time the Face of Boe told us how to get out..."_

_"But he's not here this time, which means - "_

_" - we have to figure it out ourselves."_

_"If we just use Bad Wolf together..."_

_"We'll come back to Earth in pieces. Our bodies got ripped apart."_

_"But Bad Wolf creates life. She doesn't destroy it... she can't destroy us. She'll create us back again, I'm sure of it. We ARE Bad Wolf! And if we don't go back to life, what're we gonna do? Just wait here... forever?" _She looked around at the bleak fog and shivered.

He looked at her. One of his serious, dark and important looks. His eyes flashed, an emotional storm brewing under the surface. It was crunch time.

_"If we go back and Bad Wolf doesn't do anything, we'll exist as lifeless scraps of flesh for eternity. You realise that?"_

_"Yeah, I know. And it's not gonna happen, yeah? We're going back, Theta." _Oh-so-determined. His Rose... she put her life on the line so many times. He was so, so proud of her...

_"Okay." _He was gonna trust her. Didn't he always?

They both tapped into the immense power at their fingertips and felt themselves burning.with golden fire. Theta took Rose's hand as they began the now familiar journey to life. It was easier together. They soared instead of plodded, half-flew up the path. They saw the door again, the gateway between life and death. And they were aware of the power that they posessed, to travel between the two, instead of taking the one-way road from life to death like all other beings ever created. Everything dies... everyone turns into dust... nothing stays the same... except for them. The ultimate exceptions. The gods.

And they tumbled through the gateway, into the unknown, not knowing whether their bodies would be there for them in life... but they had a hand to hold the whole way through, and somehow that made the long fight a little bit better...

Back on Earth, Jackie had been thrown back by the force of the explosions but was miraculously unharmed aside from the odd scratch or bruise. She was standing there in absoloute shock as she saw the Doctor explode with her daughter at the same time as the cathedral. TWO explosions? She knew something had gone wrong but didn't know how serious it was. She didn't know whether to panic. Whether to interfere or stay well away. The square had long since drifted into chaos - everyone who wasn't stunned or worse was running around screaming in a panic. The emergency services were here now and were beginning to cordon off the area. The cathedral roof had managed to catch fire and teams of men were working on it. The police were running around trying to herd people together, afraid of another alien attack. Jackie hurried out of their way before they could round her up and gazed frantically at the point where Theta and Rose had exploded, on the verge of tears. There were bits of mutilated flesh strewn around the nearby area. As far as she could tell, they were both dead. They were gods, sure, but... nobody could come back from that. Could they?

That was when it started. A weak golden light began to pour from the exact point that Rose and Theta exploded. It rapidly grew stronger and stronger, attracting the attention of everyone in the square. Soon it was almost pure-white, and blinding. A solid sphere of power grew, radiating and pulsing gently. The sphere slowly split exactly in half and levitated until both mini-spheres were hovering above their heads. As this happened, bits of flesh, blood, bone and hair suddenely began to move from where they lay on the ground. As everyone watched, totally stunned, the pieces began zooming up to join and merge, slowly forming two humanoid bodies. The pieces were sealed together with a glowing white substance that left no traces of damage and healed any of the skin's existing bruises or flaws.

The naked forms of one man and one woman were now visible as silhouettes through the dazzling light. When both forms were entirely complete, they both began to spin very fast in a mystical wind that ebbed and flowed around them, tornado-style. Suddenely, they stopped dead and the wind began to pour into their mouths, which were both wide open. As the torrent of air gushed into them both figures crackled with white sparks. In a sort of trance, they both lifted their right hands and touched their palms together. As they did this every single fragment of their clothing and every one of their posessions lifted up, joined together and was returned to them. Fully clothed and looking exactly as they had done before, there was a pause and they hovered there for a long moment. Then, suddenely, the connection was broken. The light, the sparks and the wind disappeared as suddenely as they came and Theta and Rose both fell to the ground in a heap.

Silence in the square. All panic had ceased and everyone was looking at the two bodies on the floor. Jackie held her breath, feeling the tension. Were they alive?

Suddenely both of them stirred, sat up groggily and saw each other. Huge smiles spread across both their faces and they hugged each other for dear life. They'd made it!

_"Oh Rose..."_

The way he said it made her look at him, eyes blazing with sudden desire. _"We'd better be getting married... NOW!"_

_"Of course we are... but you might want to get off me first..." _Rose got up off Theta and helped him to his feet. As they looked around them they realised for the first time that they were being stared at by a crowd of bystanders, firemen whose hoses were dripping lifelessly on the ground, and a group of police officers, who were moving towards them bearing handcuffs.

"We're arresting you... by the power of the law."

When Theta backed away, they pulled out guns and began firing at them.

_"Why the hell can't I marry you in peace?" _An exasperated Theta took Rose's hand and dashed up the street with her, avoiding the bullets, the troupe of officers in hot pursuit.

They dashed down endless side-streets and alleyways until they were hopelessly lost.

_"Where are we?"_

_"Haven't a clue..."_

_"We NEED to get to the Tardis..."_

The cops were closing in from both sides of the narrow street they were on. They were trapped! The cops pointed their weapons, ready to fire...

Suddenely, a battered and familiar truck came zooming down the street, past the cops, and screeched to a halt in front of Theta and Rose. It was... Harold! In his van! He stuck his head out and stared at them.

"I was driving home when I saw you two! What've you done, eh, to 'av all them coppers chasin' yer?"

Theta's grin was ear-splitting. "Tell you later..."

"Git in the van then, come on!" He shoved them both in the back of his van and was zooming off again before the stunned officers had time to react. They tried to shoot at Harold's van, but for once his reckless driving paid off - he was veering to either side of the road too quickly to aim at him.

As the van sped off down the road Rose decided to ask Harold, "Harold, Jackie's still out there. I saw her. She didn't die in the explosion..."

"The explosion?"

"Yeah... the explosion. Long story, but the short of it is... the Doctor blew up the cathedral. You know - St. Thomas'."

"Eh!" Harold whistled. "That takes some doing... Yer a fine man, Doctor..."

"Why thank you!" Theta looked delighted.

"And in the process, we kinda revealed that we're... aliens. So now the police... and pretty soon the army... will be after us. So Theta and I have to leave Earth for now. And we need to tell Jackie."

Harold nodded understandingly. "Seems to me it'd be better off if I dropped you at yer blue box first, then, and then how's about I go an' pick up Jackie an' tell her where yer going an' that yer all safe..."

"Harold - that's great!"

They were nearing the estate now. Harold parked the van outside and both of them got out. Theta patted Harold on the shoulder.

"Harold... thank you."

"Aw it was nothin'. Glad I could 'elp. You two are... brilliant. An' don't you forget that. Wish Jackie an' I could be there for the wedding..."

Rose hugged him.

"Bye sweetheart!"

"Bye Harold!"

They waved the van out of sight before staring at the road they'd just driven down. As he left, cops had swarmed down it in all directions, trying to surround them. All of them had huge black weapons and they could hear the rattle of bullets as the officers emptied their guns, firing at will, desperate to catch the aliens. Theta grabbed Rose and they both sprinted for the Tardis. A bullet whined off the pavement inches from Rose's shoe and splinters of concrete embedded in her foot, but they managed to get inside the Tardis and slam the door without any serious injury.

Theta switched on the lights and whisked Rose to the medical bay, where he dug out a skin regenerator, then stopped suddenely and stared at Rose's foot.

It was glowing. As golden dust fell from it gently, the concrete chips disappeared from her foot and the skin completely healed. They both stared at it in amazement.

_"We're still in the first twenty-four hours of our new... life, I suppose. That's what's healed your foot!" _He grinned.

They went back into the Tardis control room and the Doctor dashed around pushing levers and buttons, charting a course.

_"So where are we going to get married then?"_

He looked at her and beamed. _"I never did take you to Barcelona, did I?"_

They landed soon afterwards on Barcelona, a peaceful world that appeared totally cut off from the rest of the universe. A cool breeze was blowing on a beautiful grass-covered hill covered in trees. From where they had landed, they could see a tiny church in the distance, across a lake so large it could have been an ocean. There were buildings, a small city, across the water. Where they stood, it was deciduous woodland.

Theta looked around him. _"Fascinating planet, Barcelona. The wildlife on here is... amazing!"_

_"Beautiful..." _Rose breathed and he looked at her and smiled softly.

Katie jumped out of Theta's pocket onto Rose's shoulder and beamed at all the other squirrels in the trees. Theta bent his head towards her and whispered in her ear.

"Katie... they sing."

And it was true. As he said this a troupe of squirrels perched on a large branch in single file, opened their little mouths as one and began to "aah" an incredibly tuneful choral piece. It had no words - it didn't need words - but the tunes ebbed and flowed around each other quite beautifully. They looked like a group of little choirboys in a tree, their heads bobbing to the beat as they sang... Rose thought it hilarious.

Katie's eyes were bugging out of her head at the sightby this time, and Theta laughed at her

"Didn't you know? They only come out twice a day, we were lucky to catch them."

Now a little jealous of the singing squirrels, Katie huffed and turned away. Theta stroked her tail.

"There there... it doesn't matter if you can't sing Katie! I bet _they've _NEVER eaten a chocolate brownie in their lives... now _that's _something to be proud of!"

Katie cheered up and bounced around as Theta gazed at her fondly.

He looked over the huge expanse of water. _"Look - there's a church, over there! Just outside the city... if only we could get there..."_

He thought for a moment before spotting a man far in the distance in the distance leading a pack of what looked vaguely like horses. He beamed immediately and started jumping up and down. _"Of course! Rose - stay here!"_

He ignored her protests and ran over to the man. Rose watched him hold a lengthly conversation with him that involved a lot of gesticulating, shouting, feet-stamping and wandering around, but eventually Theta managed to get his hands on one of the horses and led it away from them into the distance. Rose saw no more after that and sat down on a tree stump, grumbling to Katie about the general idiocy of men. Katie made a very willing listener to this tirade, occasionally nodding her head and shooting slightly malevolent glances at the singing squirrels, who were still at it.

Several minutes later a vague shape appeared in the sky, far away. Rose watched it draw closer and soon she could make out Theta waving vigorously. He was riding something! But what? As she strained her eyes the vision flew closer. It was... a donkey! With wings! Oh Lord...

The donkey flew right up to them and travelled in circles above Rose's head before crash-landing with a bump on the ground. Theta fell off the donkey in a _very _ungentelman-like fashion, scowled and looked at Rose.

_"Ouch! Could you... help me up?"_

Rose picked him off the ground and stared at this... creation before them. Theta muttered something. When Rose asked him to speak up, he told her the whole story.

_"I meant to get you a beautiful flying Pegasus Stallion... all the horses fly here, and that bloke over there was selling them... but guess what - I'm skint. So I only had enough money for this... donkey."_

He blushed in embarassment. _"Old Arthur here - runt of the litter, I'm told. When I told him about the wedding he laughed... and said the horses are usually for hire... but I could keep him."_

Rose burst out laughing. _"There I am dreaming about riding a white stallion off into the sunset... and here you are buying me a flying donkey! Called Arthur! Oh God... could my life GET any crazier?"_

Theta smiled knowingly at her. _"You love it really..."_

And Rose couldn't help but agree. Theta helped her on Arthur and she clung to him hard as the donkey took off and began his journey over the ocean.

_"Can we... talk to Arthur?"_

Theta laughed. _"No - none of the animals here are telepathic. Just Katie..."_

It was a magical journey - watching the sunlight sparkle over the crystal water. Katie was loving the ride - she'd jumped off Rose's shoulder straight away and was now enjoying herself immensly sitting on Arthur's head. The donkey didn't mind too much... they swooped down low over the sea and watched the white surf foam on the surface, then high again to see the birds with three eyes that Theta raved on about for ages afterwards.

It all ended too soon - before long they had landed on the other side. Theta got off Arthur again, managing to keep his balance this time, and helped Rose off. The small church was now very near and Theta picked up Katie, grabbed Rose's hand and ran with her to the church door. It really was tiny, with a brown thatch roof and a old wooden door. As they approached, they heard organ music from inside. The polished tone of a professional, smooth and virtuotic. The kind of music you could sit and listen to all day without end and not get bored. Someone - whoever was inside - understood how to play.

Rose put a hand on the door, pushed it open and looked at the man playing the organ, the only one in the church, high up in the organ loft in the middle of the central isle. As the door creaked open the music stopped abruptly and the man turned to look at her.

He had a pleasant smiling face, and as he straightened up and looked down at them, she saw he was wearing the unmistakeable brown priest's habit.

"Hello!"

Theta took one look at him and ran up the aisle and up the stairs to the loft as fast as lightening. He grabbed the stunned priest by his habit and said in his excitement,

"Will you marry me?"

He realised his mistake as soon as he said it and hastened to rectify it at the horrified look on the priest's face.

"NO! I didn't mean that! I meant, will you marry me and Rose! She's down there..."

He waved at her and Rose, having heard the entire conversation, looked up at them with an amused smile on her face.

"And well, we want to get married, so please please please - "

The priest raised a hand, and when that didn't shut him up, put his hand physically over Theta's mouth to keep him quiet. Rose cut in,

"He NEVER shuts up... I recommend a good clip around the ear..."

The priest stared at her, then at Theta, then back again, trying desperately to work out what was going on. These two wierdos just burst into his church asking to get married...?

"Right! Now we have quiet... at last... could someone give me a COHERENT explanation as to what is going on..." His face was bright red by this time and he really did look quite angry.

Rose ran up to the loft to join them and decided to start. "I... am Rose Tyler and this is Theta, known as the Doctor." Theta bowed pretentiously and Rose glared at him before continuing. "Now, we have just escaped from Earth, where the entire government will quite probably be looking for us, and we've come here to get married."

"Right..." Completely and utterly confused.

"Oh it's a long story... I know it's difficult to understand, but we're really very nice people. Please would you marry us?"

The priest looked at those two long and hard. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about them made him trust them. Something about them made him knew he would try his utmost to help them...

Time seemed to stand still as Theta and Rose waited for his response.

"Okay... I'll do it."

And Theta pumped his hand enthusiastically in thanks while Rose grinned at him.

"Excellent! Now, do you have any dresses for Rose?"

_"We might not be on Earth but Jackie would kill me if I didn't marry you in a dress..." _he grinned.

"I'll see what I can do..." the priest muttered, leading them down from the organ loft.

"You... stay here." he added to Theta, leading Rose into a separate room tacked onto the side of the church.

He showed Rose a dress.

"It's the only one I've got, for emergencys - I only come here to play the organ, this church is tiny, no-one gets married here..."

Rose looked around. "I like it."

And the priest smiled before leaving the room so she could try it on.

He went back to the main church where Theta was pacing up and down in an incredibly nervous state.

The priest put a hand on his shoulder and he jumped three feet into the air with a high-pitched scream. The hand was quickly retracted and Theta whirled round to face him.

"I'm... getting married today... 900 years and I'm getting married... OH MY GOD!"

The priest looked at him in some concern. "Are you... alright?"

Theta gave him a manic grin. "I'm better than alright! Better! I'm getting married today!" He bounced on the balls of his feet.

The priest decided to humor him.

"So... where do you come from? What species are you?"

"Me? I'm... a god." He smiled. "So is Rose. The only two in the universe. And here we are, getting married in a tiny little church in rural Barcelona!" He laughed.

The priest nodded uncertainly but smiled anyway. "I don't understand... but I'm sure I won't forget you. Ever."

At this comment the Doctor looked at him properly for the first time, studying the man. "What's your name? Who are you?"

"Just call me... Charlie. Father Charlie."

"Father Charlie... where have I heard that name before?" The Doctor struggled to remember.

"I know that name... why do I know it? What are you going to be?" He looked at him strangely.

Theta would have been about to tax his brain further, but at that moment Rose walked in, and all coherent thought was driven from his head.

If she was beautiful before his brain had run out of adjectives this time. Rose was... oh, she was driving him to distraction! He felt his mouth drop open of it's own accord as this vision walked towards him wearing a beautiful white dress that floated around her and fitted her perfectly. He gulped, his eyes glowing with some intense emotion.

Charlie smiled his approval. "Very nice."

Wordlessly, Theta took his the silver tiara, the one he had given her as an engagement present, out of his pocket where he had been keeping it and placed it on her head, where it sparkled quite beautifully.

_"You... like?"_

He stared. _"Oh, I like... very much. Rose..." _He would have said more but was lost for words.

The priest motioned them to the middle of the church, which was so small that the total absence of any congregation didn't matter. It added to the surreality of the experience.

Charlie stood there before them and muttered, "Well, erm... I've never actually done anything like this before, married anyone that is, so... hope you don't mind if I skip most of the formalities... I never was a great priest, that's why I'm here, in this tiny little thing."

He clutched a wedding manual in his hand and looked incredibly anxious.

"Aww that's alright Charlie!" Rose put in.

"H-how did you know my name?" Charlie stuttered.

"Oh, I read his mind..." She jerked a thumb at Theta.

"Right... shall we begin then?" And they nodded.

_"Are you... nervous?" _Theta enquired sheepishly.

_"Just a little bit..." _He squeezed her hand hard.

As Charlie opened his mouth, Katie suddenely hopped out of Theta's pocket and onto a pew, where she watched them expectantly.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the joyful union of... erm... I forget your names..."

"Theta and Rose." Theta interjected.

"Yes, Theta and Rose." Charlie consulted his book.

"Now, I'm not even going to ask if there are any lawful impediments to this marriage because, well, what I'm doing is technically illegal - you're marrying without witnesses - and I don't have a clue what you've been up to to get banished from Earth but... I trust you." He offered them a grin, which they both returned.

"Have you got any rings?"

When they both shook their heads, he rolled his eyes before dashing off to find his emergency supplies in the other room. He soon reappeared with two gold rings, each embedded with a single diamond.

"Here you go... it's a good job they stocked this place up before dumping me in it..."

He handed one ring to each of them before giving them permission to put them on the other's fingers. As the transaction took place a golden light seemed to fill the room. Dust filtered gently down on the couple as Charlie gazed at it all in astonishment.

"You two... wow..."

Theta and Rose were by this time in their own little world of happiness - you could see the slightly glazed look in their eyes, their dazed expressions and the yellow sparks that chased each other in between their hands.

Charlie flicked through around fifteen pages of ceremonial rites and stopped at the end of the book. He smiled at both of them as he gave the final blessing.

"May you both be blessed with eternal happiness and... oh, just kiss her already!"

And Theta complied, sweeping her into his arms, and the last rays of the sun shone through the skylight directly onto them, bathing them in a warm yellow glow. They looked so perfect together it was all Katie and Father Charlie could do to refrain from crying at their wedding...

With that, Theta carried Rose out of the church door in his arms and out onto the grass, where Arthur was waiting for them. The sun was beginning to set in the distance, it's orange-red glow panning out over the expanse of sea. It looked breathtakingly beautiful and the newly weds stood there hand in hand and gazed at it quietly.

Charlie came up behind them, carrying Katie, who he had taken out of the church.

"Well... I guess you two'll be going then..."

Theta beamed. "I'm taking Rose on a tour of the universe! _And _show her the dogs with no noses!"

Suddenely, something clicked in his head and he turned round to stare at Charlie.

"I know! I know who you are! Father Charlie, as he was known... Rose, meet the Chief Advisor to the King of all Barcelona!"

"Me? Me, be Chief Advisor? You've gotta be kidding..."

"Not now, you won't be. In the future. I was there at your election!" Theta grinned nostalgically as he remembered.

Rose looked at him. "Believe it, Charlie. The most ordinary person in the universe can turn out pretty good sometimes..."

_"You should know..." _Theta muttered with a small smile and Rose grinned at him.

Charlie stood there for a moment looking dazed and confused, then collected himself and smiled at them both.

"I'll remember what you said - and I'll never forget you! Never!"

And he stood there and watched as Theta and Rose clambered onto Arthur. He'd only known them for such a short time and already it hurt a little to say goodbye... he really was getting old... As he was about to take off, Rose turned suddenely.

"Charlie! You can have Arthur once he's taken us back to the Tardis - we'll send him to keep you company!"

Father Charlie beamed his thanks and stood there to watch Arthur fly off into the sunset. He never wavered in his watch until the winged beast had flown out of sight over the horizon, when he took one last look before heading back into his church with a small smile on his face.

Sitting there on Arthur, the two of them looked at each other and just radiated happiness. They had just done what they'd wanted to do for so long... ever since they's first met each other, truth be told. The lonely gods, no longer together but alone, and oh... it felt wonderful! And after that, their lips locked together and in each other's embrace they knew no further thought. Out there, over the crystal water, was a flying donkey soaring through the sky. And if anyone had cared to notice, on it's back were Theta and Rose, newly-wed and wonderfully, fantastically in love.

And as they were married, the balance of the universe reached completion. Because their love was one that would last forever more, through the entirety of time and space. That's how it is. How it was. And how it was always intended to be.

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So there you have it... Theta and Rose are happily married. Because Doomsday was a terrible mistake. And TO HELL with RTD - he should know better. I believe this is the end. OR IS IT?

I need to know - do you want me to carry this on? If you want to know how I feel, the truth is I love these characters so much... I wanna write more. But I'm leaving this in your hands. Please tell me if you want this continued. If I get more people saying yes than no I will oblige, if not... it's the last you'll hear of me for some time...

Oh and please above all TELL THE TRUTH. I mean this. Please express your opinion, I want to hear it, whatever it is. Thank you all.

For what could be the last time,

A very grateful Ignoramus :D


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